Session 1

Five Essential Things a Publisher Needs from Their Marketing Team

Veteran publisher Jonathan Merkh and a group of some of the most talented publishers in the industry will share five essential insights into what a Publisher / Business Leader needs from a marketing team to be cutting edge and successful in a changing business environment. In this session, they will share stories and some of the greatest lessons they have learned in their careers to help any marketer be successful.

Session 2

Podcasts: What is fun, what sells, and what stinks

Why you should stop wasting time with radio, drop the act, and focus on podcasts that actually inspire people to buy books. In this session, we will bring some top podcast hosts to share their experiences interviewing authors, how they like being pitched, and provide insights into other great podcasts that are selling books better than anyone. We will discuss the importance of podcasts in selling books and how publishers can work with them most effectively.

Session 3

Influencer Marketing: In God we trust, everyone else has to bring data  

Christian marketers are finally starting to come into the idea but don’t know how to show the value or vet influencers. They are spending real money on people with fake followings and then dismiss the idea when they don’t get results. In this session, Todd Adkins (co-host of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast and head of LifeWay Leadership) shares his insights on how to find and cultivate relationships with genuine influencers and to encourage them to market your book.

Session 4

5 Essential Strategies for Promoting Books Online

With more and more business and consumer engagement happening online, it’s essential for publishers to develop a robust digital marketing strategy. But how do you make the myriad of online platforms and opportunities fit together into a cohesive effort? This session will explore 5 essential digital marketing strategies, and demonstrate how publishers can link them together into an integrated system. Topics will include content marketing, social media engagement, email marketing, conversion to sales, and backlist marketing.

Session 5

Video Campaigns: Building value through story-driven creative

Video has become an integral part of brand-building efforts.  Even videos must adhere to the three primary steps of brand-building: consistency, persistence, and restraint. By aligning these forces around a shared mission from the start, we can achieve a greater impact in our video content. In this session we’ll discuss a systems and value based approach that surround the video creation process to deliver impact and build your content on the foundation of the company’s values and mission statement while keeping the target audience in mind. In the end they’ll have multiple ways to enjoy your brand story, wanting more, and having a reason to come back again and again.

Session 6

What Movies and Music Promotion can Teach the Book Industry

Are there marketing techniques that movie and music marketers employ that could benefit the book industry? Are there new ways to reach consumers with content? Take a page from some of the foremost movie and music marketers in this session.

Session 7

What Every News Editor or Producer Needs from a Publicist/Publisher

Join some of the most talented editors and producers in news media who will share their insights into what works and doesn’t work in the tv, magazine, newspaper, and online media world. Attendees will learn:

• How to effectively pitch the media. (and how NOT to pitch).
• What kinds of stories have the best traction and engagement with viewers/listeners.
• What every author needs to know before doing an interview.
• Trends in the general market media regarding coverage of evangelical books and authors.
• What media coverage of evangelicalism has been this year and how it has changed (and will change).
• How evangelical content can get better media coverage.
• Is everything on the record?
• What we need to anticipate in 2018 in the media.
• Some of the craziest stories from media interaction with authors.