As OA and transitional deals continue to shift the balance of power in favor of authors and reviewers, many publishers are eager to build a playbook that helps them market and sell to them as customers.
In addition to efficient practices and clear communication throughout the publishing process to keep good authors coming back for more, publishers should focus on pursuing potential authors with calls for papers only when relevant, and personalizing messaging to win the attention and trust of top authors.
Check out three ways you can build segments in Hum to personalize communications and attract researchers who are showing signs of interest in publishing in your journal.
Target Interested Authors who have Published Before
Behavioral data holds a lot of clues around what your readers are interested in, making it possible to personalize communications and attract researchers who are showing signs of interest in publishing in your journal.
For example, here is how you could create a segment in Hum of people who have authored papers in the past and have shown recent intent to publish again:
From here, you can target this segment with an email drip campaign and ads that affirm the value proposition for the author.
Target Authors in Read and Publish Deals
Change your messaging for author prospects who are at institutions with read and publish deals. In Hum:
Since segments update instantaneously, this segments perform even better when paired with a lead generation campaign pop-up that reminds people - “Did you know that you can publish with us for free?” You can link out to a landing page or your manuscript submission and peer review systems.
Target Reviewers for Submitted Manuscripts
Remember - you're often fishing for authors and reviewers in the same pool. Publishers who treat authors with care will also benefit when it comes time to attract reviewers for submitted papers.
Say you’re looking for reviewers for a paper entitled “Gradient tracking in mating yeast depends on Bud1 inactivation and actin-independent vesicle delivery.”
In Hum:
This would give you a short list of people who the editor can reach out to via email with a personalized pitch, based on recent content engagement (coming from your first party data), rather than an editor’s network or another third-party service.
Make no mistake - publishers who want to succeed under Open Access have to invest in building relationships with potential authors and reviewers in much the same way that they have to build relationships with readers.
With a data-driven approach to personalizing and targeting your outreach, you can make your pitch more relevant to prospective authors and reviewers.
Interesting in learning more about how leading publishers are using data to win? Grab a free copy of the Complete Guide to Data for Publishers.