A digital edition of a magazine provides a wealth of ways in which you can interact with and attract readers. Use the latest tools to entice and wow your readership. While the task may seem daunting, with a little creativity and thought you will be able to improve your magazine’s presence and audience considerably.
Your publication can take advantage of the concept of continuous publishing and long after your readers have devoured your stories they can interact with your content and contribute to your success. Here are a few ways with which you can interact and improve your digital edition.
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1. Continuous Publishing
This means that the articles and other content of your publication are set to be released digitally at different periods of time. For instance, you may have the main magazine edition published on a certain day of the month, with late breaking or additional stories coming out on a regular (or daily) basis. Continuous publishing also enables you to get stories out as they are actually happening.
2. Interactive Content
Videos, photos, games and more can provide a better experience for your audience. Improve your digital magazine by offering more than just a weekly or monthly pdf edition. Let your readers catch a glimpse of staff and how the publication is put together through candid videos, photos, even instructional material about the topic of your publication.
Link to a game through a story about games – for instance, a crossword puzzle embedded in your website which your digital edition may also contain, but readers who fill it in online can submit it for accuracy checking in real time.
3. Format and Design
Your digital magazine should be easy to open and read. Improve your digital magazine by ensuring that it is viewable on nearly every platform and electronic device.Mobile friendliness is important as this is where most people start when browsing for things to read. If your design is starting to look out of date or become difficult to load for your readers, then it is probably time to give it an update so that a new and modern look & feel keeps readers coming back and enhances your potential readership.
4. E-commerce
You can reap the rewards of added value to your publication when you open an e-commerce option on your digital magazine. Whether you choose to have subscribers pay for extra articles or back issues, or design a web store of related merchandise and products, consumers will enjoy having the option to further support the publication they engage with.
While you want to ensure that you have quality products for an e-commerce site, even a simple subscriber-only area and the option to purchase photos or back issues of your digital publication will be attractive.
Discovery Magazine, National Geographic, and many other publications now offer attractive extras through e-commerce such as special purchase-only issues of the publication, educational computer games related to the topics covered by the magazine, toys, reference materials, books, t-shirts, caps, posters and more. It also works to draw in new readers who see the items in use – IE working out at the gym wearing your digital magazine’s T-shirt.
5. App
Another way to improve your digital magazine is through offering your readers a free app. Using a smartphone or tablet, you can ensure that your readers stay in touch and have ready access to the latest information as you publish. If your app has push notifications, even better as they have a very high read rate. Push notifications alert your readers to new content as soon as you publish it.
User engagement is often high if your digital magazine app is well planned and executed. Your app can be a way to track readers and offer them content which is relevant to their region, thus enhancing the engagement. Some items you may want to include in an app for your magazine are:
- Digital vouchers
- Feedback forms
- E-marketing
- Online shopping
- Live videos
- Added content (available only via your app)
Digital publications are seeing increasing competition for this new space of the reading market. By making sure that your digital magazine has some of the latest features and methods for interacting and engaging with your readership, you are ensuring that your content and publication will remain a relevant and vital part of each reader’s regular online experience.
