How HarperCollins Publishers India Bagged “Publisher of the Year” Award

About HarperCollins Publishers India

HarperCollins Publishers India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the UK-based HarperCollins Publisher group. It was established in the year 1991 and has completed over 30 years since then. The parent company HarperCollins, UK has been in the business for over 200 years. It’s also among the Big Five English-language publishing companies globally. HarperCollins Publishers India publishes over 250 new books annually with a print and digital catalogue of over 2000 titles. The main objective is to bring out the best stories in front of the right audience.

The Missing Links

Technological developments often carry a disruptive tendency and businesses have to adapt to a new normal. Over the last decade, digitisation has taken over the physical realm and digital presence is a must for all organisations. Publishing giants like HarperCollins were also faced with a similar challenge which they overcame by establishing a robust digital presence.

Sending email newsletters to subscribers and potential customers was an integral part of the digital marketing strategy for HarperCollins Publishers India. Since email newsletters can be personalised for different audience segments, it’s an effective marketing channel. However, the decline in the total subscriber count was painting a different story for HarperCollins Publishers India.

Increasing the subscriber count was one of the major challenges in this case. Besides this, boosting customer engagement and increasing revenue were the main objectives for HarperCollins India. Deep Focus undertook the responsibility to connect the missing links and accomplish the set objectives for HarperCollins India.

Our Approach

After conducting an in-depth analysis of the challenges faced by HarperCollins India, we at Deep Focus devised a plan to successfully overcome the challenges. Since the decline in the subscriber count was a major obstacle, we primarily focused on the elements responsible for the same.

Not serving the right content to the right audience could be one of the biggest reasons behind the high unsubscribe rate. Therefore, we put a strong emphasis on serving personalised recommendations through email marketing campaigns. People are less likely to unsubscribe when they are served what they like.

We also realised that consistency across branding, website and mobile app experience is a must to win the audience. Therefore, we went into the nitty-gritty of things to make things uniform across all platforms. Connecting visual design with a good and simple hierarchy surely hits the right spot, so we also incorporated the same. We also made sure that the content was accessible across all devices and screens.

Solution Methodology

The key objectives for HarperCollins India were to boost audience growth and increase customer engagement which could help amplify the revenue. Reducing the unsubscribe rate was the main objective to plug the leak in revenue. Here’s what we leveraged to accomplish the goals.

1. Winning Subject Lines

The first and most crucial communication element when it comes to email campaigns is the subject line. The right subject line can have a profound impact on the open rates for email. The audience is less likely to unsubscribe when they see the value that’s being delivered in the newsletters and other emails.

2. Retargeting campaigns

Unlike cold email campaigns, retargeting or remarketing campaigns are for a hot audience. These audiences have shown interest in and engaged with the campaigns in the past. Therefore, delivering relevant and interesting content to them can reduce the likelihood of unsubscribing. We leveraged the retargeting campaigns to plug the hole without spending a lot.

3. Personalised recommendations

Classifying the existing audience into different strata and classes was the key to offering personalised recommendations. We focused on dividing the audience based on some key attributes. Most personalised recommendation campaigns had a very high open rate, almost over 65%.

4. Festive giveaways

Festive giveaways by brands are something that audiences always look up to during festival seasons. Be it a discount on books or a special hamper, it can work wonders. Our festival campaigns were aimed to increase interaction and engagement. We encouraged the audience to participate in the Christmas giveaway to win a prize. This campaign had a great response from the audience with an open rate of over 33%.

Quantifying Results: Let the Numbers Do the Talking

A quick glimpse into what we were able to achieve for HarperCollins Publisher India.

Audience size increased by 21792 subscribers from July’21 to April’22, a 48% increase in total subscriber count

The average open rate for 5-star contacts for different groups and segments was over 67% with the highest crossing over 73% (Watch group)

A significant increase in the organic flow of subscribers during the whole period Remarketing campaigns helped to boost the audience list in the most efficient manner