Meet Erica

How long have you been at the company, and what kind of different jobs have you done at Random House?
I’ve been working full-time for Random House for two years in the Direct-to Consumer (D2C) group, which falls under the Growth area of Publishing Operations and IT. Our group is focused on companywide online marketing strategy and growing online sales. I manage a good portion of the reporting and analysis for our group, including sales and marketing analysis, web analytics, consumer research, and I also help out with financial planning. I have a bit of a history with Random House as I temped and interned here when I was in college. When I was an intern, I moved through many different departments including Inventory Management, Production, Sub-Rights and Art across a few different publishing divisions. It was a great experience and definitely motivated me to come back!

What’s a typical day like for you?
A typical day involves 1-2 meetings with D2C team members about various projects and then, possibly another meeting with someone from the publishing divisions to talk about a specific project. When I’m not in meetings, I spend a lot of time in Excel and Filemaker Pro running analyses and queries, or looking up campaign performance in our web analytics program, Hitbox. Recently, I led two training programs for online marketers, so I spent a lot of time preparing training and presentation materials for those in PowerPoint.

What attracted you to your position? What is your favorite thing about your job?
I’m a numbers person, so the analytical nature of the job appealed to me. I like when I get to be a problem solver! I really enjoy helping other people in D2C and the publishing divisions with analytical problems.

Additionally, because Direct-to-Consumer is a relatively new business for Random House, our group has an entrepreneurial feel. We work cross-functionally, so I often get to work on all kinds of Operations and Marketing projects that fall outside of the realm of my everyday job description. It keeps things really fun and interesting, and allows me to be creative as well as analytical.

Tell me about a site or a campaign that you’re proud of. What did you do and what were the results?
Because I’m in a corporate area, we don’t run very many large-scale campaigns, but I do work on keyword ad campaigns for the corporate Random House Signed Editions program. Some of our Google ads have been very successful in converting direct sales through randomhouse.com.

What’s the culture like at Random House and in your division?
I love the culture at Random House. It’s one of the main reasons why I enjoy working here so much. Random House attracts very smart and creative people who are a lot of fun to work with. There is also a love and respect for books that permeates everything we do and makes our work very rewarding. My group is creative and open-minded. We are not very hierarchical – opinions are expressed freely and valued at all levels of the staff.

What new opportunities exist for Random House in today's digital environment?
There are so many! We’re already taking advantage of online marketing opportunities and starting to experiment with new digital products, but there are limitless possibilities. Engaging with online communities is a great opportunity for us and we are headed in that direction. I also look forward to seeing what we do in the e-book arena and if we will be able to change the face of the e-book (e.g. add interactive features, streaming media, etc.). Collecting and harnessing consumer data via online outreach is another big opportunity for us.

Do you have any advice for someone who would like to work at Random House in a position like yours?
Sure! You should be analytically inclined and comfortable working with numbers. If you don’t have experience with online marketing, familiarize yourself with the types of campaigns and sites that the publishing divisions work on. It’s also great to be familiar with online measurement tools, like web analytics programs.

How does Random House support your professional and personal development?
Random House offers great training opportunities and my group is very supportive of in-house and external training. I have taken Negotiation Skills, Communication Skills, Time Management and HTML training in-house, as well as external web analytics training. I feel like I am constantly building my job skills as well as those organizational skills that can transfer to any position.

How does Random House’s work life balance compare to other industries?
We have a great work/life balance here. Random House is very supportive of employees having a fulfilling life outside of work. We get the best vacation time in the industry and the company is very understanding when it comes to taking sick time or family time. We also get outstanding benefits through our relationship with Bertelsmann. I’m getting married this summer and my fiancé is definitely looking forward to sharing my great benefits!

What has been your most challenging/rewarding/memorable task/project so far?
It’s very hard to pick one, but I am very proud of the consumer research program within D2C. Before I started, we didn’t have a means of surveying consumers. Having come to Random House from the market research industry, I used what I learned in my previous job to find a survey vendor and to draft surveys for D2C and the publishing divisions. So far, we have conducted more than 15 consumer surveys and collected a lot of useful information about our readers.

What are your thoughts on the community/social and environmental initiatives that Random House is currently supporting/pursuing?
I’m really impressed by our Green Committee, which has achieved a LEED certificate for our building and helped increase our use of recycled paper. Random House actively sponsors First Book, an organization that gives books to needy children, which I think is great. We also get great support from Bertelsmann. Recently they offered to match employee’s charitable contributions toward a relief fund for the recent earthquake in China.

At Random House, we have very diverse imprints, what do your imprints focus on in online marketing?
I am in a corporate area rather than a publishing imprint, so my group works across all imprints. It’s very interesting for us because we get to interact with very different programs and personalities. Some imprints are already strong consumer brands (e.g. Fodor’s) so historically, they have been more active in online marketing. For example, Fodor’s already has an ad-supported website and a strong community. But all imprints seem to understand the importance of connecting directly with the consumer, and are increasing their online marketing efforts.