Being the pioneers in the digital publishing industry, mag+ has witnessed a massive shift to digital magazines. The journey turned out to be not so straightforward. We noticed that it took publishers and big platforms some time to get their bearings and figure out what makes digital work. But one thing that can never go wrong is delivering what the reader wants.
Here are six major lessons we’ve distilled about how to deliver what the modern digital reader wants in a magazine.
Make your existence widely known
In these times of platform challenges for digital publishers, you’ve got to deploy a smart, targeted marketing strategy so your audience can find you quickly and easily. Nobody is going to invest time and effort in finding your magazine, especially when there are plenty of great options right in front of them on social media. The digital magazines that are doing well are available on every tablet and smartphone and have multiple ways for the audience to reach their content. They also find ways to keep the audience coming back.
As per a survey that compared consumer preferences when it comes to print versus digital magazines found barriers to digital such as “never remembering to open the app after subscribing.” Placing subscribers on a mailing list and then sending relevant information and reminders to their email accounts is a great way to keep them heading to your app. To help you through, mag+ lets you instantly create and send push notifications to the readers.
Make the reader’s job easy
The onboarding experience for your magazine should be simple. From the very first time a reader opens the app, she should be able to navigate intuitively. The content and design also need to be compelling enough to bring them back.
Studies show that consumers who love reading magazines are often found to spend more time with print than digital because of several issues with digital. These include having to remember passwords and not knowing how to save or share things of particular interest. To avoid this, feature your “share” icons prominently, maybe on the top of every story, with all social media platforms in one place.
Be surprising
If you ask readers what they want in a digital reading experience, they’re likely to tell you they want the same thing they get in print. This may seem like a lack of imagination, but it is completely understandable. It’s not a reader’s job to figure out what would be cool, rather it’s yours. You are responsible to create an engaging digital reading experience and engage readers. A reader’s job is to know what’s cool when they see it. Studies have shown that when readers are offered several versions of digital content, they will most often choose a more interactive experience over a static PDF. Improve the reader experience by adding interactive twists and turns, such as subtle animation, quick navigation, audio, and 360-degree rotation.
Do ALL the things
Offer varied experiences: written text, great design, videos and audio clips, interactivity that allows commenting or sending an email to the editor, the chance to do surveys, etc. Online consumers love that they can easily share interesting articles on social media and easily know more about a topic by clicking relevant links and using the search functionality.
Don’t be obnoxious
Don’t go overboard with the above recommendations and create something that’s intrusive or jarring. Every little detail should support your magazine’s theme and target audience. If consumers find the content too heavy on gimmicks and ads — especially pop-up ads — it’s a big turn-off.
Keep the good content coming
Though it’s tough out there in the digital magazine world, the success stories we see are offering great content every day. Don’t limit yourself to offering new content once a month as in the old print model, that’s plenty of a time gap for readers to forget about you. Instead, send fresh content reminders to your readers by sending relevant and well-crafted push notifications or emails.