Added value for readers, a blessing for the marketing department

Your customers are online. All. Regardless of whether you sell washing machines or offer a highly specialized consultation. If you don't pick up your customers online, you run the risk of simply losing them.

If you take a closer look on the websites of the companies, still a lot of potential is wasted. This applies in particular to a widespread marketing tool: the customer magazine.

Customer magazines have always been a very popular instrument to stay in touch with your customers, showing them that you are there, which topics are currently exciting and which new offers are available.

Customer magazines create credibility and trust. Also they are becoming more and more important at a time in which content marketing is becoming indispensable.

For this reason, many companies in Germany have their own customer magazine – and invest heaps of money in producing it.

However: Customer magazines are still mainly designed and produced to end up as print publications. For online communication, there is almost always only a residual product: a PDF file, which goes to the website archive.

This doesn’t match your potential customers reading habits. They are reading more and more often on their smartphones or tablets and want to send magazines or articles by e-mail or share them via social media.

Also in the B2B area. 80 percent of B2B-employees research products and services on their tablet in the evening hours; and more than 50 percent of B2B search queries come from smartphones - and this is an increasing trend.

However, PDFs are not made for mobile reading and mobile search behavior.

If you have ever tried to read a PDF customer magazine on your smartphone, you will probably know: customer-friendliness is something different.

Also, the content in PDFs is not found by search engines. The result: it can only be read by someone who received the PDF or who happened to find it on your website.

Additional potential through search online optimization or through sharing via social media? Dead loss.

Businesses need digital customer magazines. The advantages start with the format already: Digital customer magazines are responsive, which means that they are optimally displayed on every device, whether it's a mobile phone, PC or tablet.

A clear menu navigation allows readers to follow their individual interests right away: swiping from article to article, flipping through picture galleries, clicking call-to-action buttons and using sharing  the options. 

In this way, customers do spend more time with digital customer magazines than with PDFs. In addition: with call-to-action elements or suitably placed forms, customers can contact you directly - for feedback or even an order.

Ask yourself: Why do you even produce a customer magazine and provide personell and money for it?

Probably because you want to strengthen and expand the relationship with your customers. Traditional advertising is not a great idea anymore because people are flooded with ads, especially online.

Unagitated magazines with real content- and entertainment value make a difference and are more pleasant and do offer orientation.

An important fact is that readers of customer magazines are basically interested in your subject, otherwise they would not be your customers at all. In your magazine you might want to present background information on your products or services, examples of use or innovations and hope to turn your customers into even better customers.

By using a digital customer magazine, you don't just pick up the readers who planned on coming to you anyway.

The articles from your customer magazine will also be found by search engines like Google. Those who didn't know anything about your company, but are interested in your topics and are looking for answers. This means a completely new marketing potential for the “customer magazine” format.

The same applies for the use of your content on social media.

While the PDF customer magazine waits in vain for readers on your website you can now share the articles of your digital customer magazine via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & Co online.

By sharing your content across different channels, the return on investment increases. This also means that the effort pays off for you way more, if you spread your costly-created content within cross-media strategies and use it for sales.

The digital customer magazine also allows you to use media which would not work on paper or in PDF.

As only one example:  you can easily integrate videos - best practices, users in action, tutorials. The virtual visit to your company becomes even more informative and personal - an added value for your potential customer.

Through your digital customer magazine - with or without a connection to social media platforms - you will promptly receive a direct feedback from your customers.

At the same time, you will learn what your readers and customers are really looking for, using integrated analysis tools.

Digital magazines are in the cloud. In this way a large amount of data about usage can be gained.

You will see in real time how many people read your customer magazine; which articles are being read particularly often and which devices your readers are using and whether they click your call-to-action buttons or not.

This allows you to determine conversion rates directly from your digital customer magazine and optimize the content - a dream coming true for your marketing department.

Crazy thing is: creating digital customer magazines doesn't require a huge digitization strategy or the engagement of your IT department.

To create digital customer magazines there are online tools such as Webmag, which work with preconfigured design templates - customized to the design of customer magazines.

By using a visual drag & drop editor, you or your team can create your own digital customer magazine without any special knowledge. The magazine matches your appearance perfectly and offers you all the imaginable digital possibilities.

Due to the fact that online tools such as Webmag are stored in cloud, you can easily start without having to install a new and complex software.

Extra bonus: If you cooperate with small retailers or service partners, you can easily support them stepping towards digitization.

Many small businesses don't have the employees needed or know-how to adapt their corporate communications to today's needs.

Simply provide them with your digital customer magazine. The smaller partner can easily add additional information and their own articles through the modular editor.

Like this you and your partners present the brand in a consistent and compatible manner – at all digital touch points.