Most magazine publishers find digital strategies challenging. It’s understandable; the lustre of the launch of the iPad, alongside the early expectations that tablets would be the magazine industry’s panacea for declining print sales, has long since worn off, best illustrated by Apple’s retiring of the Newsstand in 2015.
So, what now? The simple answer is that while there is no “one size fits all” solution for every magazine publisher, there are some basic rules of thumb that every publisher can follow, as well as monetization models that work better for certain publishers.
Free content is ubiquitous. Do not try to package and monetize content that a reader can very easily find elsewhere for free. This only serves to devalue your brand.
Keep things simple. The success of media service providers like Netflix and Spotify is in no small part due to the fact they have very simple, easy-to-understand pricing models that give the user a clear idea of what they’re paying and what they’re getting. An overcomplicated subscription model helps no one.
Make sure your marketing is reflecting your development and strategy. Be as loud as possible about your digital strategy and aim to cross-fertilize different types of audiences in both print and digital to get a better idea of their idiosyncrasies.
Use push notifications with your magazine app sparingly. If users are bombarded with redundant push notifications while on their mobile devices, they’ll simply ignore them in the future.
Use multiple media channels, also commonly called “omni-channel marketing”. Make sure that when a new edition goes live, all your social media channels, as well as traditional channels like your website, are all singing the same song.
Become acquainted with App Store Optimization or “ASO”, as it is more commonly referred to. This is the app store equivalent to SEO and allows you to gain maximum possible exposure.
Originally written by Jessica Pinch
YUDU Publisher is the award winning cloud publishing platform used around the world for creating online publications. It was developed by YUDU, app developers and software architects. YUDU Publisher allows you to create high-quality, feature rich, digital versions of magazines, brochures and catalogues that are accessible and visually stunning on any device.
Fantastic information Jessica, I was really struggling not knowing where to start, nice set of ‘don’ts’ any why not information too. Many thanks
LikeLike
Great post content and even better this blog. Congratulations on the great content offered here.
LikeLike
Great tips, Thank you for sharing strategy for Monetization.
LikeLike
Good to hear there are good tricks to try for digital magazines nowadays. Social media has been very effective that it become very saturated for hundreds of thousands of publishers.
LikeLike
Thanks Francesca and Jessica for this great post which will help us monetize our digital magazines. What stuck with me at the end of the post was ‘to keep things simple’ ….I believe we will be doing a little bit of tweaking with our current digital magazines.
LikeLike