Giving Publishers the Data They Need: Developing Eloquence on Alert

Firebrand Technologies’s newest service, Eloquence on Alert, gives publishers more access to data about their titles across retail sites than ever before. Through EoA, publishers can keep tabs on any changes to their title information, including changes to sale price, product pages, buy buttons, and third-party seller activity.

Catherine Toolan, Director of Eloquence Services at Firebrand, gave us an inside look at how Eloquence on Alert developed, and some of the surprising ways that publishers are already using it.

What were the origins of EoA?

Eloquence on Alert came out of a simple need for publishers to determine if and how their products were being displayed on retail and reviewer sites. Publishers send out metadata to trading partners and there is very little feedback from those trading partners once the metadata is received. This simple mission planted the seed and from there we have discovered that there is a lot more information we can provide to make it easier for publishers to help their products succeed.

A lot of the impetus for EoA came from Eloquence on Demand users. Many of our clients were sending out the very best metadata that they could on the industry recommended schedule but they were still having issues with the data or the timing of updates on some sites. They also encountered situations where their titles did not appear on some sites at all. As you can imagine, publishers with a large list cannot check retail sites daily for the presence or absence of their titles. Eloquence on Alert grew out of a need to help publishers tackle these and similar problems.

Eloquence on Alert was conceived in 2016, with the first data collection in July of that year.  We released an “alpha” Title Management-dependent version of EoA in 2017 and quickly realized that we needed to pivot and build a SaaS model (software as a service) that would allow for independent product growth.

How does EoA interact with other Firebrand products like Title Management and Eloquence on Demand?

Eloquence on Alert is a standalone product and does not require the use of any other Firebrand products. We will be working to integrate EoA with Eloquence on Demand and NetGalley in the future.

How does EoA fit in with Firebrand’s overall vision around publishing and data?

Firebrand’s flagship products, Title Management and Eloquence on Demand encourage publishers to develop workflows and data management practices that help them to provide some of the best metadata in the industry. Eloquence on Alert takes this a step further and helps publishers fine-tune their practices by drawing attention to trading partner behavior in relation to their metadata content and delivery schedule. The best metadata in the world does not do much for you if your partners are not using it.    

What need does EoA meet for publishers?

Eloquence on Alert monitors critical factors such as fluctuating list and sale prices, changes in sales rank, missing product pages, missing buy buttons, third-party seller activity, marketing assets, review count growth, and audience sentiment. EoA is committed to continued product development and enhancement to meet emerging industry needs.

We know that a select group of publishers have been using EoA in beta. How have you seen them use EoA?

Each of our beta customers is using EoA in a different way. This was somewhat of a surprise! Some are using it primarily to monitor third-party seller activity, some are using it to track missing product pages or price data fluctuation, and some are using the data in their own Business Intelligence systems to augment their internal data analysis.

Did any of them use it in ways that surprised you?

Yes, there are several uses that have surprised me. One that seems obvious to me now but did not initially is the use of EoA to track products that should not appear on certain sites. When certain products appear for sale on a specific site it is a violation and their product management team is alerted so that they can contact the site to have the product(s) removed.

How do you hope publishers will use EoA now that it’s more widely available?

I hope that EoA will become a “first thing in the morning” activity. The EoA results can be used to let you know if there will be any burning issues to deal with today, if any of your products are on the move, or if all is status quo for the day. A simple check-in with EoA can do a lot to inform your priorities.

Where can readers learn more about EoA or see if it’s a good fit for their goals?

The best way to learn more about Eloquence on Alert is to see it in action – words cannot really describe it! Readers can contact our Sales and Marketing department at info@firebrandtech.com to schedule a demo.

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Announcing Eloquence on Alert from Firebrand Technologies

Title performance monitoring to ensure ongoing success in the marketplace

On May 15, Firebrand Technologies announced the launch of Eloquence on Alert. This new service helps publishers confidently and proactively ensure their catalog’s ongoing success through deep data about any changes to their title information across multiple retail sites.

NetGalley and Firebrand Technologies* are dedicated to helping publishers harness data that can be used to help shape decision-making, innovate proactively, and streamline workflows.

Using proprietary data gathering services, EoA helps publishers keep track of critical factors, such as fluctuating sale price, missing product pages, third-party seller activity, mysterious buy button takeovers, and more.

These data points are available to publishers in a dedicated interface, with customizable alerts, as well as search and classification tools to help publishers address problems and leverage opportunities earlier and more efficiently than ever before.

Eloquence on Alert beta testers Dan Fingerman and Anna Patota (Guilford Press) noted, “You work hard to get all the data right, then days, months, or even years later, there’s a wrench in the works. And it could be on a bestseller! Handling this work manually is impossible, but with the right alerts, EoA can point out problems so you can fix them, and quickly.”

With Eloquence on Alert, publishers can

  • Set an alert to warn them when a third party seller takes over the buy box.
  • Watch for spikes in their sales rank so their marketing team can ride the wave.
  • Respond quickly to products with low customer ratings.
  • Determine if recent List Price changes have been posted on key sites

“Eloquence on Alert helps publishers identify issues and trends that would be very difficult to discern otherwise, saving them time and money and allowing for the reallocation of resources to new or different projects,” said Catherine Toolan, Firebrand’s Director of Eloquence Services.

Melissa Wade, Digital Sales Manager of Our Daily Bread Ministries, has also been using Eloquence on Alert in beta. “With hundreds of products (both print and digital), it is impossible to keep track of every piece of metadata for each product. EOA allows me to set alerts to monitor when a piece of that metadata changes so I can know if I need to update that distributor’s metadata. It allows me to know if one of our titles is not included on a particular marketplace. I can learn when I lose the Buy Box on a marketplace. It is an invaluable resource for me to use when we have hundreds of product to oversee in the digital world.”

Eloquence on Alert and NetGalley Advanced are just two of the deliberate steps that Firebrand and NetGalley are taking toward our goal to help publishers harness their data for powerful and actionable insights.

To learn more about Eloquence on Alert, contact Firebrand to schedule a demo, attend an informational webinar on June 18, or visit the Firebrand booth at BookExpo (#1348).

To learn about NetGalley Advanced, contact concierge@netgalley.com, or attend the webinar on June 13.

*NetGalley is part of Firebrand Technologies (www.firebrandtech.com) which provides leading software and services to help publishers achieve success.

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