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Volume Two
Issue One
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Welcome. Beginning with this first issue of the New Year, we are introducing something new to our Monthly Updates -- a PatronMail Client Feature.
With almost 200 clients, PatronMail's client base is varied. Although the vast majority are presenting arts organizations, some focus on other areas of arts and culture. For this issue, we're introducing you to one of the most dynamic veteran leaders of the online world for book lovers. Carol Fitzgerald has been a pioneer on the Internet and we're sure her experience and savvy will be enlightening. We hope you enjoy our new monthly Client Feature. Read on . . .
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Client Feature: Carol Fitzgerald and the Book Report Network
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Carol Fitzgerald has been working in the online world since 1995, when she developed her first site for readers on AOL, The Book Report. Today she runs an impressive network of seven sites, each of which caters to a specific demographic segment of booklovers, providing resources, reviews, author interviews, recommendations and much more to eager readers. In the Q & A below, Carol discusses her network of sites, shares her thoughts on the online medium and talks about how newsletters play a key role in her marketing strategy.
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Q & A with Carol Fitzgerald
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Some of the sites that make up
TheBookReportNetwork.com
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CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THEBOOKREPORTNETWORK.COM?
TheBookReportNetwork.com started eight years ago with one site on AOL, which later became Bookreporter.com. Our goal: to connect readers with the authors they like and give them more information about the books they love. While people know all about their favorite actors and actresses, singers and musicians, they know woefully little about those who write books. We envisioned a place for readers to talk about their last great read --- and find their next one.
We followed up this initial Web site with six others that are both demographic and genre-specific --- ReadingGroupGuides.com (for book clubs), AuthorsOnTheWeb.com (with in-depth information about authors), AuthorYellowPages.com (a searchable directory of author Web sites), Teenreads.com (for 12-17), Kidsreads.com (for kids 6-12) and our newest venture, FaithfulReader.com (for Christian readers).
Seeing our success in creating awareness of books and authors, publishers started to approach us to build Web sites for authors. This prompted us to start a Web site design/development division of the business. To date we have built more than 100 Web sites. We also do online marketing for both books and authors as we promote content to appropriate Web sites across the Internet.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS NOW WITH THE SEVEN SITES IN THE NETWORK?
We know how to create communities for booklovers of all ages. Our goal is to broaden our audiences and continue to develop features that readers want to see. Each time we think we have maxed all ideas, we hear something from a reader, or see a gap in what is being delivered to readers, and create something new. Some features that we have recently created include Coming Attractions (lists of books soon to be published), Author Bibliographies (lists of select authors' books, in order) and New in Paperback (lists of titles now available in paperback).
HOW DO YOU UTILIZE NEWSLETTERS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE?
We have found that the weekly newsletter on Bookreporter.com is our single biggest traffic driver. We use our newsletter to promote individual features, as well as share news that we feel will be of interest to our readers. Web site traffic immediately climbs the days that we send out our mailings. Thinking through the 10 topics that we cover in the newsletters encourages us to plot our programming for each update to ensure that readers quickly can see what the top stories are. Often we are adjusting programming as I am laying out topics for the newsletters 24 hours before our updates. If we have too much content, we may move some to another week. We also check our editorial mix to be sure we are delivering a balanced range of information.
YOU FEEL VERY STRONGLY THAT BOTH THE WEB SITES AND THE NEWSLETTERS NEED TO HAVE THEIR OWN VOICE, TONE AND ATTITUDE. CAN YOU EXPLAIN MORE ABOUT THIS?
I spent 17 years at Conde Nast and watched that company build from 5 magazines to 15 during my tenure there. Drummed into my head was that each magazine had its own voice, tone and attitude. The writing would reflect the tastes of the reader of that magazine. While there typically will be more than one magazine in each demographic, how they each cover a topic would be intrinsic to its own identity. I can take just about any topic and write the cover line, headline and copy that will work for a magazine's distinct readership.
We do the same thing with each of our Web sites. The writing on Bookreporter.com is subtly different from what we do on ReadingGroupGuides.com or FaithfulReader.com, our Web site for Christian readers, but the voices on Kidsreads.com and Teenreads.com are even more distinct. Each reflects what will make it special to that audience.
I write the openers to each of our newsletters (we use the Indexed Standard format for each) and there are times I have written up to five in a day. I change the style for each to ensure that the voice, tone and attitude of each site is firmly embedded into the newsletter writing. Typically I envision a reader for the site and write the newsletter opener as e-mail. It establishes it as a one-to-one communication instead of what I might do if I were writing ad or promo copy. Keeping these pieces personal gives our newsletters a feel of being individualized notes instead of broadcast mailings.
I do confess that on the days when we write more than one newsletter in a day it can be a challenge to keep the voice, tone and attitude on target! But it's critical to our success.
I have two people who read each newsletter after I write it. They are charged with checking details after I have developed the overarching message.
Occasionally we also will do e-postcards for quick targeted mailings. We follow the same strategy with these.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR YOUR COMPANY?
We are contemplating two new genre-specific Web sites. We also are planning to augment the services which we are offering to authors to include more promotion and creative management. While authors have agents, editors and publicists, we would like to work with them on integrated strategies to connect them with readers. Newsletters will be one tool that we employ for establishing these connections.
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Visit TheBookReportNetwork.com
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PatronMail Helps You Comply With Anti-Spam Law
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The CAN-SPAM law which went into effect on January 1st is the first federal law to regulate e-mail marketing, and not-for-profit managers are required to abide by it. As a PatronMail client, many of the requirements are already built into PatronMail, allowing you to ensure you're in compliance.
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Read more about the CAN-SPAM law here
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Learn about PatronMail -- Request a Demonstration
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If you're thinking about joining the nearly 200 arts clients that use PatronMail -- give us 15 minutes and we'll allow you to "test-drive" a PatonMail account. During the demonstration, we'll talk about how the regulations of the anti-spam law are built into PatronMail.
The 20-minute demonstration can be scheduled at your convenience.
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Click here to request a demonstration
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming February 25, 2004.
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