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Partner Success Stories

Lightbulb Press enhances B2B sales efforts, increases site traffic
Wisdom

About Lightbulb Press

Lightbulb Press, founded in 1990, is a highly regarded creator and publisher of financial educational content, both in print and online. Lightbulb first made its mark with The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing, which sold over 3 million copies. Today, Lightbulb’s print list, which is focused on helping readers make smart financial decisions, comprises more than 30 titles. Lightbulb also offers digital and branded versions of its content and custom guides and online content for corporate clients. The New York-based company’s 25 employees develop all its content in-house.

Challenge


“Google Books has helped our sales team to quickly and effectively share information about our products with potential clients. We’re now able to direct prospects to the online version of a book they’re interested in, rather than having to mail a printed copy or email a PDF.”

Rickie Kowlessar
Director of Technology and eBusiness

Lightbulb Press prides itself on quality. “Our content is clear and lighthearted,” says Mavis Morris, Director of Publishing Services. “We use engaging graphics and distill vast amounts of information into easily digestible packages.” Indeed, she says one of the company’s most effective sales tools is simply to get its books in front of potential clients.

Since Lightbulb generates 95 percent of its revenue via corporate sales, and the B2B book sales process is typically more lengthy and high-touch than its retail counterpart, the company devotes extensive resources to sales efforts. Lightbulb’s biggest challenge is to get its books in front of more potential corporate clients using its existing resources.

Solution

Attracted by Google Books’s usability (“It’s very user friendly,” says Rickie Kowlessar, Director of Technology and eBusiness at Lightbulb), the company joined the Google Books Partner Program in early 2006. Now, as an alternative to sending actual copies of the guides to prospective clients, Lightbulb encourages prospects to check out their books on Google Books. “Google Books has helped our sales team to quickly and effectively share information about our products with potential clients,” says Kowlessar. “We’re now able to direct prospects to the online version of a book they’re interested in, rather than having to mail a printed copy or email a PDF.”


“Since we added our titles to Book Search, we’ve noticed a 15 to 20 percent increase in traffic. And we’ve seen an increase in email and voice inquiries about our products and services, which opens new lines of communication for our sales team.”

Directing prospects to Google Books for previews of its books can have a direct impact on the company’s sales efforts. For example, recently, a Lightbulb representative found himself on the phone with a prospect who wasn’t sure if he knew of the company or its products. But when the rep directed him to Book Search to check out Lightbulb’s guides, the prospect recognized them immediately – and eventually, that phone call ended in a sale.

Lightbulb Press is confident that using Google Books as a key part of its sales process is helping its bottom line. According to Kowlessar, “Using Google Books this way enhances the sales process, ultimately increasing sales.”

As an added bonus, Lightbulb Press is enjoying increased online traffic as a result of including its books on Google Books. “Since we added our titles to Book Search, we’ve noticed a 15 to 20 percent increase in traffic,” says Kowlessar. “And we’ve seen an increase in email and voice inquiries about our products and services, which opens new lines of communication for our sales team.”

Lightbulb Press has submitted 16 titles to Google Books to date, and plans to include all its books in coming months.

About Google Books

Google Books enables authors and publishers to promote their books on Google. Google scans the full text of a partner’s titles so that Google users can see books that match the topics they are searching on. When users click on a book search result, they’re taken to a Google hosted web page displaying a scanned image of the relevant page from the book. Each page also contains multiple “Buy this Book” links, which enable users to purchase the book from online retailers. Users may also see contextually targeted Google AdWords ads on these pages. Partners receive a share of the revenue generated from ads appearing on their content.

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