Running a limited-time price promotion is an effective way to increase sales or downloads of a book or series, but different types of promotions work best for different marketing goals. We’ve discussed before how discounting the first book in a series to free is an excellent way to hook new readers, but for authors with a large backlist, there’s another strategy that can drive sales and generate revenue — discounting a box set.
There are several different box set strategies you can employ, but whether you choose to bundle an entire series, the first few books in a series, standalone titles, or the first books from multiple series, bundling books for a limited-time sale can dramatically increase sales, revenue, and visibility.
Here are some reasons why you should consider running a discount on a box set.
1. It’s an appealing deal for readers
The goal of any discount is to attract readers to try a book or author they may not otherwise pick up for full-price. 95% of readers we surveyed said they have purchased a book by an author previously unknown to them because of a price promotion, so limited-time deals are a proven method for hooking new fans. Offering multiple books at one discounted price further increases the value of your deal, making it even more enticing for readers who haven’t discovered you yet!
We’ve seen that Featured Deals for box sets consistently generate high engagement and conversions from BookBub readers. On average, we’ve seen 20% higher click-through rates on box sets than single books. Additionally, the average purchase rate (the percentage of readers who received the deal that went on to purchase the featured book) is 29% higher for box set deals than single title deals.
2. You can funnel readers to the next full-priced book in the series
Bundling and discounting the first two or three books in a series can be an effective way to drive full-priced sales for later books in the series. This is a similar strategy to discounting the first book in a series — you hook readers into the story from the beginning, and once they’re attached to the characters they’ll go on to buy the remaining books in the series. 70% of BookBub partners report that sales increased for their other titles after running a Featured Deal on one of their books, with the greatest increase in sales occurring when the promoted book was part of a series.
Make sure to promote the book you want readers to buy next in the back matter of the discounted box set. Partners who include links in the back matter see a 3x higher increase in sales of other books in the series.
3. Box set promotions generate a high ROI
Last, but certainly not least, box set promotions can generate a high ROI. This can make a box set discount appealing to authors or publishers promoting a series who may not want to sacrifice short-term revenue by discounting a book to free.
Because deals on box sets can generate higher purchase rates (as evidenced above), they often outperform single books discounted to the same price. BookBub’s Featured Deal fee is based on deal price, which means that box sets often drive relatively high ROIs for their price point. This trend is consistent for higher-priced box sets as well.
The higher ROIs we see for box sets at all price points indicate that box set promotions can be effective revenue-drivers at any price. If your goal is to drive revenue and maximize the ROI of your promotion, you may want to consider a $1.99 or $2.99 price point for your next box set discount. However, keep in mind that BookBub’s editors do take pricing into consideration in our Featured Deal selection process. Your box set still needs to be competitive in other respects, but a higher-priced box set may be selected due to the benefit of offering subscribers multiple books at a low price.
Interested in publishing a box set? Check out these eight tips on creating single-author box sets and more creative bundling strategies authors are using to drive more sales.
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