Katie Rooke: CAP Digital Marketing Executive
I’m Katie, and I joined the CAP Marketing team in September 2018.
As I write, most of my time is being taken up by getting an exciting new project off the ground. The project is called KeY Reads and is launched this month. But more on that later! For now, here’s a day in the life of Katie Rooke:
My day begins in my inbox. I check for any emails that have come in overnight and I will always be on the lookout for emails from our authors. I manage the author order process here at CAP, so if an author has a book launch event coming up for instance, and they’re looking to buy copies of their own book to sell, then I’ll coordinate all of that. I love working with our authors, and helping get copies of their newly published books to them, which they’ll have poured their hearts and souls into, is a very rewarding part of my job.
This will normally take me to about 10:30am, at which time I’ll be heading downstairs for a CAP marketing team catch up meeting. We meet up twice a week to bring each other up to speed on current projects and tasks as well as highlight any priorities for the week ahead. If I’ve been mulling over an idea for something new, then these meetings are also a great opportunity to put feelers out and gather thoughts and feedback and decide on what the next steps should be. I really value this time with my colleagues, partly because I simply enjoy their company (we are a very close-knit team and we get along so well that at times I can forget that we’re not just friends meeting up for a coffee) but also because they’re a knowledgeable bunch and their insight is genuinely useful.
I’m writing this post in April, which for CAP Marketing means conferences, conferences, conferences. With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions we’ve started to see more academic conferences now happening in person, but there are many that are still taking place virtually (or with a virtual element) so our conference marketing work is a mix of pre- & post-COVID methods. We started a program of virtual conference exhibits in 2020 due to lockdown restrictions (you may have seen my manager Rachel Shand’s blog post from March 2020 about conferences going virtual) which carried on into 2021 and will continue throughout this year. So, on a typical day in April, you can probably find me preparing for a conference, which normally entails either setting up a virtual exhibit webpage, putting together a printed multi-title flyer, or posting to Twitter.
Now, without any further delay, it’s time to talk about KeY Reads, which my colleague Charlie Woodhead and I have developed over the past couple of months. This initiative was born out of an eagerness to celebrate our publishers’ most important publications, combined with a desire to take advantage of the benefits and unique capabilities of eBooks. We’ve seen a drastic increase in the price of shipping over the past couple of years which combined with global shipping delays has made it more difficult to ship books overseas. Ebooks can bypass these kinds of issues, and their portability makes it easier for those with busy lifestyles to access all of their reading on the go. KeY Reads are for everyone but will be particularly useful for students and younger academics for this reason. Our eBooks platform VitalSource offers accessibility tools (including customisable display settings and Text-to-Speech capability) as well as integrated study tools (including note-taking, highlights, and flashcards), in case you needed more reasons to love eBooks.
So what exactly is KeY Reads and how does it work? Each month we’ll announce a selection of titles, or KeY Reads, focusing on a specific subject area, that we consider to be fundamental to the field. If it’s a KeY Read, and it’s published in your field, it’ll be an unmissable, major text and ultimately the kind of scholarship that you need to have in your eBook library. To that end, we’ll make the eBook versions of our KeY Reads available to buy at a discounted price (for a limited time only). Our KeY Reads will change on a monthly basis with a new subject area focus every time. Want to avoid missing out, or to be made aware when your favourite subject is being featured? We’ve got you covered with the KeY Reads newsletter. As a newsletter subscriber you’ll unlock our exclusive subscriber-only discount which is a whopping 40% off any KeY Reads purchase made through the CAP website.
To celebrate the launch of KeY Reads, we’re excited to announce that new subscribers will be in with the chance to win £25.00 to spend on eBooks through the Combined Academic Publishers website. To enter the prize draw, you just need to be subscribed to the KeY Reads newsletter by 31 May 2022.
Discover our KeY Reads picks for May 2022 and become a subscriber here: https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/key-reads/
Follow KeY Reads on Twitter for regular updates: https://twitter.com/KeY_Read
Like so many other businesses, CAP had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions that came with it by moving much of our marketing activities online. Since 2020 our digital marketing output has increased dramatically and, although COVID-19 restrictions have since eased, digital marketing is very much here to stay, and it has become an important part of what we do.
That’s where I come in! A couple of months ago, I became a Digital Marketing Executive for CAP, so my goals for the foreseeable future will be to explore new digital marketing opportunities and initiatives as well as keep our digital output as strong as possible. I’ve seen the good that digital marketing has done for the business already, and I’m excited for that to continue.