User Research and Marketing Strategy
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"How can we bring more organic readers onto the Publishizer website?"
Hyper Island Project: The Studio
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Role: User researcher and strategist
Background
Publishizer is a crowdfunding platform which focuses on one item only: books. Aspiring authors launch campaigns on the Publishizer platform with the intention of acquiring financial backers who support the publication of the book. Depending on the success of the campaign, Publishizer then sends the books to publishers with proof and a financial foundation that the book will raise success on the market. The publishers differ depending on the success of the campaign.
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Since Publishizer is bringing an entirely new system to the publication process, the amount of writers is greater than the amount of readers. The majority of readers and financial backers are not organic visitors to the site. The authors must run their own campaigns and are responsible for driving traffic to the site to support their book.
Publishizer presented our team with the challenge to help improve this aspect of their business. They asked our team: "How can we bring more organic readers onto the Publishizer website?"
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Understand + Insight
*Screenshot of Publishizer home page
Our first objectives as a team were to understand Publishizer and how it works, the market of reading and writing as well as the potential user base of readers we would target a marketing campaign towards.
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After about a week of research, we decided upon the essential factors which would serve as the compass of the project:
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1. Raise awareness amongst the reader community about Publishizer
2. Provide more reader value on the site which secures the retention of the readers
Research
*Due to privacy agreements, the full details of this research may not be disclosed however the fundamentals of the research process and application may be discussed.
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Understanding readers: a qualitative investigation
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Method: Interview
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In order to learn about what triggers readers and what their motivations for reading are, I interviewed 66 avid readers whom I connected with on Book Lover Facebook groups and asked them to describe why they read and what their favorite part of reading is.
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I then quantified and analyzed the results.
*Screenshot of Publishizer public brochure page
Results and Application
The results of our research revealed underlying themes which all participants of the interview could be categorized into.
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The information from the readers we reached out to sparked ideas regarding word choice, the theme of a marketing campaign and themes for writing contests on the Publishizer website which invite readers to participate as judges.
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Our marketing strategy included both print ads and digital outreach on social media.
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The campaign: "Explore untold stories."
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Team mate Stella Choi and I created the concept of "Explore untold stories" which we focused the marketing campaign around.
These images demonstrate a mockup version of a magazine ad which our team member Stella Choi designed. The one page ad in a magazine features a miniature print book which invites the readers to fill in blank sections and post their ideas onto social media with the chosen hashtag. These ads are not targeted specifically to readers, however, they aim to drive more traffic to the Publishizer website and increase awareness within the public overall.
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In addition to print and poster ads, a digital strategy for reaching readers was created. In order to create more value for the readers, we suggested creating a writing contest which involved the readers as judges. This extends the theme of exploring untold stories, adds an extra element of activity for readers on the site that does not include financial backing of books.
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To the left is a mockup of a digital poster which would be posted on Book Lover social media pages as well as Publishizer social media profiles.
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A full detailed strategy was created and given to our client, however, the details may not be disclosed publicly.
*Mockup of poster ad
