ECPA Research Reports

At ECPA, information and research are key components to our strategic plan to serve our industry and to provide our members with the knowledge they need to understand industry trends and determine key operational benchmarks for their publishing business. Available reports include:

ECPA Marketing Survey
Financial & Sales Operating Performance Report
Salary and Benefits Report

Marketing Survey

The marketing world has been turned upside down over the last decade by the introduction of the iPhone, Android, iPad, Kindle, Google AdWords, web-based marketing, and direct to consumer marketing, not to mention social media. The digital revolution combined with the wide acceptance of online purchasing made marketing budgets of the past obsolete. No publisher can run its marketing program the way we did even 5 years ago.

The ECPA 2014 Marketing Survey (the first in seven years!), was developed over the last year by representatives from 10 ECPA member publishers representing a wide range of sizes and product emphasis. It will help you find out how your sales and marketing efforts compare to your peers, and discover what is happening in Christian Publishing overall.

YOU WILL DISCOVER:

How content is selling by category, format, channel, and device.

What practices (direct mail, social media, trade and consumer conferences, etc) are employed by other publishers, and if they plan to increase or decrease their efforts in the coming year.

How much money is being allocated for each of these practices.

How publishers are supporting the retail channels with marketing.

How technology (banner ads, AdWords, AdSense, AdRoll, etc) is being utilized, and how much money is spent on it.

How many staff hours are allocated to marketing, and how are they paid.

MORE

You have to participate to see the results. CONTACT ECPA

Financial & Sales Operating Performance Report

The most comprehensive and in-depth compilation of current performance statistics for evangelical Christian publishing industry to date, ECPA's Financial & Sales Performance Report presents detailed sales and operating data including sales by product type and by market channels. The information is designed and presented in order to provide easy-to-understand guidelines for identifying sales statistics and business performance improvement opportunities.

The report breaks down comparative financial ratios and statistics in several different ways: by participants overall, by company sales volume size, by sales focus related to books, and by corporate structure (non-profits and for-profits), including a special grouping of high profit firms.

In-depth analysis of data is presented in a user-friendly format with graphs and charts, and includes the following categories:

• Overall profitability
• Expense management: gross margin v. expenses ratio
• Top expense categories that are most closely monitored
• Inventory turn
• Sales and gross margins per employee
• Total payroll as percentage of sales
• Asset turnover
• Debt to equity ratios
• Percent change in net sales over the past year
• Forecasted sales growth
• Detailed sales analysis by product type and by market channel

Participating companies automatically received a highly valuable and confidential Company Performance Report, which compares their individual company data alongside the industry norms.

To order the current report - or to participate in the next industry study - CONTACT ECPA
This report is only available for purchase by ECPA member publishers who have completed the survey.

Salary and Benefits Report

This report provides ECPA member publishers with invaluable information related to compensation levels for many departments and positions within a publishing house. Similar to the Financial & Sales Operating Performance Report, the report breaks down comparative salary and benefit ratios and statistics in several different ways: by participants overall, by company sales volume size, and by corporate structure (non-profits and for-profits), including a special grouping of high profit firms. This is an indispensable report for any publishers Human Resources Department. This report is only available for purchase by ECPA member publishers who have completed the Salary and Benefits Survey. For more information, CONTACT ECPA