Integration Marketing, Amazon and Book Authors


An email landed in my inbox yesterday.  It was from Amazon.com and
related to my buying a book by Mark Joyner titled "The Great Formula". 
And the content of that email was exciting - for a very personal reason.

It was recommending MY new book, "Think, Write & Retire" to all buyers!

Amazon.com's referral engine

Amazon.com, widely recognized as among the leading online retailers and
offering a vast collection of book titles, has a very effective database
that is mined often and intelligently.  At the heart of book sales and
marketing is the 'Recommended Reading' list, where they sort smartly
through past buying behavior and suggest other titles that buyers may 
enjoy.

For example, if you buy a Stephen King thriller, the process will
suggest other horror and mystery style books from its vast collection
and recommend the ones that many OTHER readers bought and thought
interesting.

Integration Marketing Magic

Now, having your own book showing up in such a "Recommended Reading"
list can be an extremely powerful and effective way for authors to reach
vast audiences - automatically.

If your book is on a genre that's popular, and (by chance) buyers of
another popular best-seller in that same genre happen to purchase your
title, then Amazon's recommendation engine may notice a link between the
two - and pull up your title as being 'related'.

Then, by sending out an email that suggests your title to buyers of the
other book, they are putting your name in front of a highly targeted
niche audience - one that's very likely to buy your book!

Does it work?

It's too early to know if having my book mentioned in an email to buyers
has any major impact, especially as it coincides with other marketing
efforts.  But I do know that within 24 hours of the email hitting the
wire, my author rank went up from around 131,000 to 22,486.  That's a
sharp rise in popularity by any standards.

How can book authors take advantage of this?

Not knowing how the system works exactly, it would be hard to make any
recommendations.  But here are some suggestions.

* Get endorsements or reviews from authors of best-selling books 

* Include these reviews on your Amazon.com book detail page 

* If you can have the author endorse your book to their audience, and
make some sales, it may help

In any case, the recommendation engine on Amazon.com will likely see a
connection between your book and the other best-seller, and suggest it
to buyers who ordered the other popular book.

Subtle forms of integration marketing are powerful and potent.  When
they happen accidentally and incidentally, they are also delightful. 
Hopefully this article helps you tap into the power of integration
marketing on Amazon.com


About the author:

Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is the author of "Think, Write & Retire - How To
Turn Words Into Wealth, Easily!" at http://ThinkWriteRetire.com and a
student of Mark Joyner's powerful Integration Marketing techniques.