Revitalizing your brand every three to five years is critical to market success, according to a survey sponsored by the American Marketing Association, and independent firms Luth Research and MiresBall1. The survey found that brands that were revitalized every three to five years scored highest on its success index.
The survey further revealed that companies were updating their messaging and medium to keep their brand fresh, rather than changing their core brand positioning. When asked about their marketing tactics for accomplishing this revitalization, word-of-mouth ranked first, followed by web and interactive programs.
So what does this mean for publishers? It is a difficult challenge to keep your magazine brand exciting and relevant without undermining the trust and brand loyalty you have already spent significant time and money cultivating. With the public’s continually rising appetite for all things digital, properly positioning and promoting your digital edition is an ideal way to revitalize your brand. Since your digital edition can be a copy of your print edition, reiterating your layout, cover, graphics and style, the digital edition supports your brand, while providing you with the opportunity to enhance and revitalize your image by offering the excitement of digital editions and multimedia integration.
For publishers that do not have a digital edition, you can start by converting your print magazine. This underscores and supports your overall brand positioning. Then, add enhancements to update and revitalize your image. Many publishers add a multimedia brand ad or video introduction to their digital edition as a replacement for the right-hand help screen. This visually exciting introduction will engender heightened user interest and create a fresh brand perspective.
Next, encourage advertisers to provide multimedia ads in your magazine. A popular vehicle is the blow-in card that is placed over a page or over a print ad in the digital edition. This provides a second window that can be set to play upon demand or auto- play. Consider offering a discounted ad package consisting of print and digital ads; or offer a discounted multimedia ad package for first-time digital advertisers to increase acceptance of this new medium. Once advertisers are accustomed to the new ad format, you can also use this to increase their ad commitment as well as add visual interest to your digital publication. With the advent of Apple’s iPhone™, there is now a serious platform for mobile digital content distribution. Given all the iPhone’s advanced technology, including the visual clarity of its 3.5 inch, 160 dpi viewing screen, the iPhone is a “natural” platform for mobile readers to access digital magazines. Texterity provided the first digital magazine interface and portal designed for the
Apple iPhone that lets users see a publisher’s complete magazine, as originally published, on the screen. This program has created great visibility for publishers participating in the launch and beta test. By offering free samples of their publication from the iPhone portal, publishers have been able to generate publicity, create reader excitement and expand their reach. Some publishers worry that going mobile will take a lot of time and resources. It doesn’t; we do all the work. It generally takes less than an hour of your time, per issue, to send us the files and then review the finished product. The URL to read these issues on an iPhone is http://iphone.texterity.com/magazines. (For those without an iPhone, please visit www.texterity.com/iphone for more information.)
Some publishers may ask, "Why revitalize my brand through digital editions, instead of just focusing on my website?" This is a great question. You may have noticed that a few years ago, almost everyone was running Flash websites with exciting multimedia visuals that provided a cutting-edge feel. Looking around the web lately, there is a reduction in the use of Flash. Why? Probably because search engine optimization (SEO) cost-effectively drives traffic, and search engine robots cannot recognize Flash data. As a result, many savvy companies have moved away from Flash websites to ensure better search engine results. Digital editions offer you a way to integrate multimedia excitement into your brand while preserving your SEO efforts. Digital editions can serve as your branded bridge between your elegant print layout and your online web content. They offer the opportunity to inte- grate your editorial content with social media and multimedia, while extending your brand image. With your website as your primary means of driving search engine results, Texterity can also optimize each digital edition for search engine recognition. The text can be searched so you can add Flash or multimedia ele- ments for excitement without loosing the additional search engine benefits that digital editions provide. The main navigation screen of an iPhone magazine issue.
Digital sample magazine programs are expensive, but reinforce the quality and elegance of your printed brand. Now, you can have the best of both worlds with a digital free trial or sample product that has all the elegance of your printed magazine at a fraction of the cost. Texterity offers a Look Inside the Magazine program that integrates subscriber-managed (protected) content into a publisher’s website search or a popular search engine such as Google. The added value of this program is that it also enables prospective readers to find customized editorial samples. For example, a reader searching on robots can be presented with a list of editorial articles your magazine has published on robots. The prospect then selects and previews the sample that matches his/her exact interests and has the highest likelihood of converting each individual prospect into a subscriber.
One of the misconceptions some publishers have about developing multimedia enhancements is that it is time consuming and labor intensive. But there are varying levels of multimedia content. You can develop them internally, hire an external agency or rely on the internet’s wealth of options for prerecorded audio and video clips that you can integrate into your multimedia messaging.
Another option is a user-generated video campaign. A number of major brands have run user-generated video contests with phenomenal results. You can create a promotional campaign asking readers to send in their own videos about their favorite article. You can also create an editorial theme for the quarter. Pick a broad topic and offer readers the opportunity to submit a three to five minute video. For example, one topic could be "Training Your Sales Staff" and you could ask your readers for videos of their best sales tips and programs. Provide links to the best three videos each month and let users vote for their favorite video (this can be done in survey format integrated directly into the digital edition page). At the end of the quarter, have a prize for the best video to keep users engaged. This can keep your brand fresh and innovative while it also directly engages your subscribers.
Another way to engage digital readers is to offer a "feedback of the month" section in your editorial. Devote a page to a hot issue in your industry. Provide editorial coverage of the pro and con sides of the issue, adding a sidebar that contains an integrated voting/survey mechanism. Allow your digital readers to vote on the issue and then publish the results in your next edition. This inexpensive program keeps readers engaged on a regular basis.
Digital editions also offer a way to integrate your brand with popular social media sites and create online “buzz.” We can provide links to the top social media sites directly from your digital edition, along with blogging permalinks that allow your users to share the content refer-links and a blogences in blogs and social media ging permalink sites. Furthermore, you can provide screen. RSS feeds that notify your readers and prospects immediately when articles are published that match their interests.
To provide a cutting-edge brand image for prospective subscribers, promote your digital edition in some of your banner and keyword ad campaigns. Allow users to link directly to the digital sample to get a feel for your publication and then subscribe. Users will be wowed at your cutting-edge image, and you can simultaneously drive your marketing, circulation-building and brand revitalization efforts.
Refresh your brand by prominently placing ads conveying the benefits of digital editions on your website. Offer free trials from your website, send an email notification to your print subscribers and run an ad promoting your digital edition in your print publication. All of these promotions referencing your digital editions and multimedia integration help to refresh your brand and provide a cutting-edge image. Even readers who prefer to stay with print tend to think of your brand as innovative after digital introduction campaigns, so it is a win-win situation.
By using the examples in this article, you can refresh your brand with a digital makeover that increases reader excitement and engagement. For more information on how digital editions can help you revitalize your brand, please contact Texterity at 1-800-455-5450. Also, watch for our white paper on SEO for Digital Editions and learn how to increase the search engine results rank of your digital magazine.
Copyright Texterity, Inc. 2007. All rights reserved. iPhone is a trademark of Apple.