Goodreads: The Illusion of Engagement
Quantity over Quality in Email Engagement
Unraveling Goodreads' Email Strategy:
An Excessive Approach with Diminishing Returns
Goodreads, the popular online (and my favorite) platform for readers, has gained a massive following by connecting readers, offering recommendations & reviews, and facilitating discussions.
Whenever I hear of a new book I should read, I immediately check out the Goodreads reviews. If it looks good, I’ll add it to one of my many digital ‘shelves’ for revisiting later.
For the privilege of having this database and reading list at my fingertips, I pay exactly…..$0 a month.
But what I don’t pay in dollars, I do pay for in time by managing the insane number of emails that I get from them.
The image below is a screenshot of my email inbox from one morning a few weeks ago. I kept in the non-Goodreads emails to show that I’m not using a filter. This is just how many emails I get from them compared to everything else.1
The Surface Appeal: Quantity over Quality in Email Engagement
Before examining the reasons why this strategy doesn’t work, let’s imagine the situation that led to this result.
Goodreads Business Model
Some important context about Goodreads and the company’s business model can be found here, but in summary:
Amazon acquired Goodreads in 2013
Goodreads makes money directly by:
Advertising sponsored giveaways (publishers pay)
Selling books through affiliate links (final sellers pay)
Selling ad space on their site (advertisers pay)
The biggest utility of Goodreads to Amazon is likely not direct monetary contribution, but rather the demographic, behavioral, and purchasing data of its user base.2 For more information, check out the post below
MarTech Basics #2: What Are Customers Telling You?
In this post, join me discussing what kinds of customer data are out there, some common categories, and examples of each of them. We’ll be covering the first step in making your customers feel seen: Understanding your customer data If you haven’t seen the first post in this series, start here:
In summary, Goodreads is incentivized to have users that regularly buy, review, and engage with book pages on the site. The more time that a user spends on the site, the more likely he or she is to engage in one of those core actions.
Employee Motivation
If you’ve worked in a corporate environment, you’ve surely seen how I imagine the conversation that led to these emails went.
To play the character of the non-understanding boss, I’ve cast Cave Johnson, from the hit game Portal
Employee: Mr. Johnson, I see you’ve requested we 10x the emails we send out? I’m concerned that we’re neglecting user enjoyment by doing that.
Cave Johnson: What's this mumbo-jumbo about enjoyment? We're not here to coddle users with fancy bells and whistles. All I care about is those site visits skyrocketing!
Employee: If our users have a negative experience, they won't stick around.
Cave Johnson: We've got a dashboard that measures site visits, and I want that number climbing higher and higher.
Employee: We need to consider the quality of those visits. If we bombard users with irrelevant emails just to boost site visits, they'll feel frustrated.
Cave Johnson: You’ve made your case, but here's the bottom line: I want those site visit numbers to climb. You figure out a way to make it happen.
Employee: Understood, Mr. Johnson. I'll work on creating a strategy that maximizes site visits.
Sure enough, the UX employee listened to his boss and sent out a lot more emails. The boss’ dashboard looked better, and everyone was happy.
The Illusion of Engagement
While this strategy may appear to drive engagement, in reality, it can be ineffective and alienating for already active users. Let’s dive into the effects of Goodreads' email strategy, uncovering its shortcomings and examining the impact on user experience.
The Quantity Trap
Goodreads' email strategy seems rooted in the belief that bombarding users with a high volume of emails will increase their engagement. From daily updates on friends' activities to frequent recommendations and reminders, the sheer number of emails suggests a proactive approach to keeping users engaged.
Diminishing Returns
While the intent may be to keep users connected and encourage further engagement, the reality is often different. For already active users, this excessive email flow can be overwhelming and counterproductive. Instead of fostering a deeper connection, it risks pushing users away from the service they once enjoyed.
Degraded User Experience
The deluge of emails from Goodreads can degrade the user experience rather than enhancing it. The constant interruptions and repetitive content can make it challenging for users to focus on the emails that truly matter, such as updates from their favorite authors or meaningful book recommendations. The cluttered inbox becomes a source of frustration rather than an engaging experience.
Alienating Active Users
Active users who have already integrated Goodreads into their reading routine may find the excessive emails unnecessary and intrusive. Instead of fostering a sense of connection and community, it risks creating annoyance and prompting users to disengage from the platform. The very users who were once highly engaged can become disillusioned and seek alternative ways to connect with the literary world.
What Should Happen
By focusing on quantity rather than quality, Goodreads’ strategy fails to deliver tailored content that resonates with user preferences and habits.
How should the company manage their user engagement instead?
Goodreads should do a customer journey audit so that they understand what the most common customer journeys look like
Once a customer journey is defined3, Goodreads should analyze historical data to identify retention and anti-retention patterns
Visualizing Anti-Rentention Patterns from HyperGrowth Partners’ great article (source: link here) Once the wide net of potential (anti)retention patterns have been identified, Goodreads can run A/B or Multi-Arm Bandit testing to determine which ones are actually important for user engagement. See below for more information about testing.
Armed with the information about what customer journey points affect customer behavior, Goodreads should then be sure that they collect the necessary data to personalize those touchpoints and journey.
Finally, Goodreads should then personalize the whole journey to increase user engagement while still suppressing excessive communications for already active users.
A more targeted and personalized approach could help create meaningful connections and sustain user engagement over the long term.
Conclusion:
Goodreads' email strategy, while intended to enhance user engagement, paradoxically falls short in its execution. The overwhelming flood of emails may seem like a proactive approach, but it often leads to diminishing returns, alienating active users, and degrading the user experience.
Rather than relying solely on quantity, Goodreads would benefit from focusing on quality, personalization, and relevance in their email communications. By striking a balance and respecting users' preferences, Goodreads can foster a more engaging and rewarding experience, strengthening its position as a go-to platform for book enthusiasts.
Please note that this is within Gmails “Social” tab, so not a full representation of all of my emails, but for privacy’s sake, I won’t include an image of my Primary inbox.
From the required CCPA Disclosure on Goodreads’ website, the company collects the following data:
Always make sure that customer journey maps are defined from the perspective of the customer. It doesn’t matter how the business thinks of a process or integrations; only the customer’s perspective (and language they use) is considered for the mapping
Thanks for sharing, good read as I'm working on a non social network version of goodreads :)