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Content Production Simplified Digital Magazines
| Date post: | 22-Jul-2016 |
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Digital Magazines or Ezines (Electronic Magazines) are
gaining popularity, with the number of people using
smart devices to access them on the go growing. As
the market moves away from purely lifestyle, there’s
an increasing niche developing for the B2B Marketer
looking to take advantage of new and exciting ways to
get content in front of potential customers.
ONLINE PUBLICATIONS
CONTENTS
WHAT
WHERE
WHO
HOW
WHY
CONCLUSION
WHAT
Readers turn to Digital Magazines for:
Digital Magazines, Webzines or Ezines all refer to
publications that are issued online instead of as a
traditional print edition.
These online magazines often share similar con-
tent to a blog or newsletter and in most cases,
replicate a print version of the original publication.
Ezines essentially allow for greater editorial and
design control and make distributing and sharing
marketing content with a wide audience quick and
easy.
Today, many businesses use Digital Magazines to
promote their products and services and many
have begun publishing them in multiple digital for-
mats - as traditional web pages or Flash versions
that mimic traditional magazines with flipping
pages.
88% Technology news
& analysis
73% Technical information
WHAT
73% of readers are using Ezines for their job
and 64% are likely to share content they’ve
seen in a digital magazine with a colleague.
42% of readers suggest that they would
register to a digital magazine if the content
was relevant to them and 20% said they
would read frequently if this was the case.
(UBM)
51% Tutorials,
guides & advice
49% Industry research
45% Business
news & analysis
Readers turn to
digital magazines
for:
(UBM)
of readers want a greater choice
of Digital Magazines. The Manu-
facturing and Engineering sectors
are underrepresented in the Ezines
currently available.
WHAT
Examples include Manufacturing Global,
Manufacturing Today, Industrial Buyer,
Manufacturing Engineering and Plant
Engineering.
63%
• Problem solving articles
Designed to answer typical or topical frequently asked questions.
This allows businesses to provide solutions or advice for their cus-
tomers and gain some authority in their industry in the process.
• Interviews
Q&A articles are popular and offer insight into the way a business
leader operates, which customers may be interested in knowing.
If interviews regularly appear in an Ezine, they’ll often advertise
the next interviewee and ask readers to submit questions that
they’d like answering – further building engagement with the au-
dience.
These digital publications succeed because they deliver information
that’s relevant to their industry readership, in entertaining formats.
For example, they’ll regularly include one or more of the following
features:
63%• Industry Insight
Delivering important sector-related news, stories about events
like trade shows or summarising a recent report can reinforce
the publisher’s authority on industry matters and warrant trust
from the readership – believing the publication to be a source of
pertinent information.
• Top Tip Lists
Lists offer a quick read to readers browsing online. Revolving these
lists around a ‘how to’ or ‘top tips’ theme can help businesses in
technical industries to break down complicated information in an
easy to understand format. Plus lists can be expanded on in more
detail in a blog or online article – adding a link to this in the digital
magazine helps to drive traffic to a company’s website.
• Teasers
Adding a short snippet about what to expect in the next edition
of a publication, helps to build anticipation and persuade readers
to return.
• Product Highlights
Products and services can be introduced and promoted discreet-
ly in ‘soft-sell’ articles, reviews or product launch stories.
WHAT
WHERE
Readers find Digital Magazines through:
Readers find
digital magazines
through:
36% Vendor websites
50% Business & tech
analysis websites
62% General
search engines
55% Alerts & e-letters
(Visually)
Magazine circulation figures show promising results
for digital adaptations. The Professional Publishers
Association revealed research demonstrating a trend
towards popular magazine titles being reformatted
for the online environment - offsetting the fall in print
to some extent.
Whilst industry related Ezines have been slower in
adopting the online format, those that are producing
a frequent edition have found a regular readership
looking to access topical business, commercial and
industrial information
WHERE
Smat Mobility
As the number of tablet and smartphones users has grown, applications
and device-ready tools have increased to cater for a mobile audience
looking to find and read digital magazines on the move.
59%
2 in 1
10%
93%
75%
of people are more likely to read a Digital Magazine
after purchasing a tablet device.
tablet owners read newspapers and/or magazines on
their device.
of tablet owners read digital magazines on their device
almost every day.
of adults still read magazines in print.
of marketers plan to spend more on mobile-accessible
content through 2015, to cater to the growing number
of tablet & smart phone users.
WHO
27% of B2B Marketers are utilis-
ing digital magazines as part of
their content marketing strategy.Examples include Manufacturing Global,
Manufacturing Today, Industrial Buyer,
Manufacturing Engineering and Plant
Engineering.
Of this, 42% of manufacturing
businesses are utilising digital
magazines as part of their con-
tent marketing plan.
HOW
DELIVERYFORMAT
Once the layout has been designed
and converted to PDF format, it’s easy
to publish a magazine online through
a user friendly site like ISSUU (where
this Ezine has been published) or
Presspad - a tool that allows members
to format their magazine as a smart
device application too.
Relevance and brevity are essential in
creating a successful online magazine.
Ezines should contain appropriate
content specific to a targeted audi-
ence and that content should also be
presented in a focused and succinct
manner.
See the checklist below to understand how both can
be achieved:
• Keep articles short. Between 300 and 500
words is the ideal length for digital maga-
zines, to retain interest and it also offers the
opportunity to include links to the full article
online. Likewise, the number of articles in an
edition should be limited, generally no more
than 6 for a frequent Ezine.
• Digital magazines need to ensure that they
stray away from their specific theme. This
theme should guide the topics that are cov-
ered in the magazine’s content.
• Again, divide the magazine into thematic
sections (or chapters) to make it easier for
the reader to navigate.
• Remember, attracting attention also comes
down to how the digital magazine looks.
Graphic Design is obviously at the core of
this and including interesting visuals such as
infographics to represent data, is one way to
improve a publication’s appeal. Learn more
about infographics in our recent article.
WHY
Reach
Digital magazine circulation had doubled in the first half of 2012,
compared to the rate of the entire previous year. This in mind, it is
wise to provide the option to receive content digitally. Ezines can
reach an audience across the globe instantly, on their preferred
portable device.
Speed
Digital editions of magazines and journals can be delivered fast, as
the customer requires them.
Interactivity
With the ability to add audio, video, links elsewhere online and ani-
mated visuals – Digital publications capture their audiences’ atten-
tion and encourage potential customers to engage with the content.
Cost
Ezines are often free to download or subscribe to and for the pub-
lisher, they offer dramatically reduced production and delivery costs
to their print alternatives. Essentially they are a cost-effective way
of distributing a message to a large audience.
READERS
WHY
37% based a product or technology
purchase decision on information
they read in a Digital Magazine.
and 12% based the same purchasing
decision on details they learnt from
advertising in a Digital Magazine.
In short, Digital Magazines are another
platform where businesses can showcase
their products & services and, as these
statistics suggest, it helps to drive sales.
PUBLISHERS
WHY
Appointments
As is the case with magazines in print, people begin to remember
the release date for an Ezine. Publishing digital magazines at regular
intervals (i.e. monthly) initiates an appointment with the readership
and can help to build engagement around the brand – as consumers
habitually download the latest edition of a familiar Ezine.
Entertainment
Digital magazines offer escapism. Customers are more likely to
browse topical and entertaining content in their spare time, over
content that’s delivering a hard sell. Providing an online publication
that’s informative but remains interesting, will make an audience
more inclined to share features and articles from it. Remember to
add social media buttons to ensure that’s even easier to share. You
can learn more about optimising social media for marketing pur-
poses in our recent news story.
Story Building
Companies are using blogs and other long forms of content to build
a story around their business messages. Digital Magazines lend
themselves to this style but also allows for a mix between more
comprehensive content and shorter extracts – catering for different
readers.
SEO
As access to information continues to grow, the ability for business-
es to stand out from the online crowd becomes increasingly vital.
SEO is an important factor in ensuring that customers are able to
discover relevant content. As a digital magazine is likely to include
text, SEO can be improved by using the key words and phrases that
people are likely to be searching for online. Additionally, adding use-
ful links and ensuring that a digital magazine is ‘device ready’ will
also increase SEO prowess, exposing content to a wider audience.
WHY
Providing great content in an easily accessible package to
meet a target audience’s needs builds a trust relationship
with that audience. They’ll come to associate that Digital
Magazine as being useful – a place where solutions are
provided - and this will help to enhance a business’s rep-
utation and authority in the industry, essentially making
it easier to turn this following into conversions and sales.
CONCLUSION
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Applegate Marketplace is the UK’s leading means for business buyers to source the tools, components and services they require, detailing over 17 million products and 400,000 companies.
Over 300,000 buyers a month use Applegate, and thousands of busi-nesses publish their product information on the site. Applegate assists both buyers and sellers, providing an efficient information marketplace. The company is ISO 9001 certified and has established broad expertise in assisting firms to grow their business online.
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