Journals are primarily concerned with maintaining their publishing output and ensuring that the production process runs as smoothly as possible. What may be further down on the agenda is marketing your journal. However, understanding how to market your journal can be extremely beneficial in the long term.
From understanding your target audience to building strategic partnerships, we’ll break down the marketing tips you need to know to maximize the growth and visibility of your journal.
What is marketing?
Marketing is a strategy employed by a business to sell or promote products to consumers. Marketing strategies are essential for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors. In academic publishing, a marketing strategy is how your journal will position itself among the hundreds of other publishing companies and thousands of journals.
Think of two similar-looking stands selling similar products; how does the consumer choose which stand to go to? It all depends on how one stand differentiates itself from the other competitors in a way that feels organic and intelligent.
How is marketing different for journals?
Academic journal publishing is driven by the open access model. Open access ensures that articles published by journals are free to access. While some journals may offer certain other products to sell, the focus is rather on disseminating knowledge and fostering a community of transparency and scholarship.
This difference in emphasis is because academic marketing primarily has a unique target audience. Rather than consumers looking for the next best product, the target audience for journals consists of researchers, academics, and institutions seeking specific, high-quality, informative research or content.
Marketing tips for journals
Since a marketing strategy for a journal doesn’t emphasize selling a product, this changes the tactics that need to be employed to achieve growth. So, what are some marketing tactics for journals to employ?
Communicate your niche
As previously mentioned, there are thousands of journals out there. That’s why you need to think about what makes your journal unique. What are its USPs (unique selling points)? Was your journal established because of a lack of research into a specific subject area? Think through such questions as you build your marketing strategy.
When you have a clear idea of your journal’s niche, factor it into your marketing materials. Show your target audience what your journal provides that others don’t. This creates a sense of dependency amongst your readers; in a crowded market, only your journal offers what they’re looking for.
Create engaging content
Tied into building a unique image for your journal is creating engaging content. Content creation covers a wide range of activities, such as blog posts, visuals and infographics, interviews, and storytelling.
To succeed in creating engaging content, think about the general concerns or issues that resonate with the academic community. Talk about the peer review process, editorial and operational efficiency, science versus humanities. But don’t just cover the big topics. As mentioned, you need to specify your niche, and creating content that appeals to smaller audiences is necessary to set you apart.
Utilize social media
A big part of marketing your niche and creating engaging content is utilizing social media. You may think using social media within academic publishing is more effort than it’s worth, but the reality is that you need social media for your journal. Utilizing social media helps you to promote the visibility of your journal and grow its readership.
You’ll need to think about which social media channels to use based on your journal’s needs. Posting on LinkedIn is great when you want professionals or academics to engage with your content directly, whereas Facebook or Instagram can be utilized for appealing to a more general audience and widening your reach. No post will ever be the same, and each one may have different goals based on the content or broader objective.
Social media platforms also offer paid advertising. If you’re looking to boost your visibility and reach more effectively, it may be worth considering paid options for content.
Build strategic partnerships
Building strategic partnerships is foundational for establishing yourself within academic publishing, especially if you’re a small-sized journal.
A strategic partnership is a basis for collaboration between two or more entities. Strategic partnerships are necessary for businesses or platforms because they often struggle when operating on their own. Entering a strategic partnership allows for resources and knowledge to be pooled, alleviating financial burdens while opening up new possibilities.
For smaller journals, building strategic partnerships with institutions, research centres, and relevant industry practices promotes journal visibility among key stakeholders while strengthening your presence and public image within academic publishing.
Defining your approach
Each journal is unique, or at least each one should be. Yes, there may be overlapping similarities in terms of research niches. But how you choose to approach promoting yourself is completely down to you. The possibilities are endless.
Yet don’t worry about thinking of all those endless ways to market your journal. Define your niche, your target audience, and what you do differently from other journals. Narrow your focus until a marketing strategy unique to you becomes clear.
Perhaps your original desire was to create a journal where less-visible research could find a home and be made accessible to those who seek it. If so, embed that same ethos into your marketing materials. The more authentic and purposeful your mission is, the easier it is to translate that into an effective strategy going forward.