To celebrate the publishing of 500 Elements titles, discover 8 things you might not know about Cambridge Elements

1. Elements is an online-first mid-length publication and often the people reading our publications are not the people buying it. We market Elements to encourage both usage and sales by simultaneously targeting both the end-user (students, researchers, etc) and the purchaser (librarians).

2. The amount of use an Element receives directly impacts its sales as libraries often buy titles through a sales model called Evidence-Based Acquisition (EBA). This model allows librarians to utilise usage data to determine which titles their users have the most interest in or need.

3. A library will have a specific amount of budget to spend on new titles, they will then be given access to our full catalogue (or a subset of) over a period, such as 6 months or a year. At the end of this time, the librarians will be able to see which titles are accessed most and will use this as the basis for deciding which titles to purchase in perpetuity, up to their spend limit. In addition to the usage data librarians also consider titles requested by the institution’s academics.

4. We drive usage by providing and promoting each Element with two weeks of free access. This allows people to read and share the work widely, growing awareness of each new title to increase the likelihood of end-users accessing the Element through their institute, contributing to the final EBA data.

5. Each Element will receive a mix of social media and email promotion targeting the end-user, beyond the two-week free access period, and has seen some Elements receiving over 10,000 downloads, course adoptions, national coverage, and numerous citations

6. In addition to this, we also market Elements at a series level, using a combination of subject emails, videos, and podcasts to showcase the latest titles and series developments. Using different channels and formats ensures we reach users through their preferred medium.

7. Authors and series editors play an important role in helping get the word out. Often your networks are the target audience for your work and using these connections makes a significant contribution to the success of an Element. On publishing your Element your dedicated marketing contact will be able to supply you with marketing collateral.

8. By focusing on increasing the number of end-users using your Element we can work together to drive citations, reviews, and sales, maximising your work’s impact by reaching the widest audience possible.

Written by Senior Marketing Executive, Victoria Willingale