The web magazine: A huge potential beyond print

Like any other magazine, a web magazine is a successful mix of stories, service articles and short news items. It should be visually appealing, entertaining, informative and ultimately strengthen the relationship with the publisher.

The actual implementation depends on who the customers are: Should decision-makers in other companies be addressed or tech-savvy young specialists under 30?

This also defines the language and tonality. As a general rule, speak to your readers the way you speak to your customers.

Simple or detailed? If a highly specialised product requiring technical explanation is sold to companies, a basic technical knowledge can be expected and technical vocabulary can also be used.

The target group would not expect anything else. However, if technical products are to be advertised to end consumers, the functions should be explained as simply and comprehensibly as possible.

Casual or businesslike? For business customers, care should be taken to be serious but not too dry. An online magazine has to inform as well as entertain. And at a level that the user would be prepared to spend money on.

Just like a classic blog, a web magazine also has a sender – who also needs to be recognisable. The name and layout should therefore suit the company. The concept has to correspond to the communication strategy, but should appear authentic and non-promotional.

For inbound marketing, it is very important to be perceived as a medium worth reading. But this will only be the case if the content doesn’t only consist of press releases from the PR agency and the marketing department. In this respect, good journalism and reading material that is worthwhile are important.

Because only good journalism that focuses on relevant content for the target group will ensure that the valuable leads do not bail out frustrated after the first reading because a boring advertising product is revealed.

What are the topics that trigger within the target group? Often it is news from the industry or from the company that is also interesting for a broader audience.

Preferably in a broader context: What is not simply new, but also socially relevant and can solve problems in the future? The view may be somewhat broader, but not arbitrary.

Background reports from the company are also interesting for readers. For example, what the company is doing to make the production of a product as environmentally friendly as possible.

There are extraordinary stories behind many products and offers. It is worthwhile to take readers behind the scenes and give them real insights.  Of course, the facts have to be true.

Other starting points for topics can be the customers themselves, by letting them have their say and share their own experiences. This can be in the form of an interview, which can also be a video, or in the form of text.

A web magazine needs to be exciting and offer the right mix of entertainment and information. Therefore, before the concept is developed with a web magazine agency, a few formalities need to be clarified:

First and foremost, of course, is the name of the magazine. It should be both interesting and appropriate, and fit in with the company’s corporate identity and corporate language.

The next point is the question of a sensible publication interval. Four issues per year are a reasonable compromise in terms of customer loyalty. If the magazine appears less frequently, there is a risk that it will be forgotten.

Then there is the question of scope. There are empirical values here. However, the general rule is: It is better to come to the market four times a year with a smaller issue than less frequently but more voluminous.

Equally important for the concept is that the magazine should have a consistent structure. Each issue should have a compelling cover story that can and should come from different areas. An outline could look like this:

• Foreword/editorial
• Brief news from the industry and the company
• Cover story
• Practical customer example
• Presentation of new products
• Practical tips
• Entertainment/humour
• Special promotions

The cover story and other content can then be used as excerpts in social media to draw attention to the latest issue. Practical tips are especially successful here.

A web magazine is far from simple: Content, image or video material has to be sourced, edited and published online – and it has to look professional. The following variants and approaches are conceivable for creating the magazine:

All employees are stretched to the limit and have no time. Therefore, the task is completely delegated to an agency that handles both the content and the intricate technical implementation.

For this, the online magazine agency needs a contact person in the company to obtain the necessary information and access. This is the most professional, but also the most expensive way to create a magazine.

An editorial team is created in the company to work with the online customer magazine agency and together they form a content hub. No matter what the individual content hubs look like, the advantages of a content hub are obvious: it defines the content at a central point, organises images and provides the copywriters at the web magazine agency with the necessary information.

A content hub therefore also offers the possibility that some services are provided within the company, by employees who are obviously very familiar with the material and topics. This also helps the web magazine agency.

Whereas a print magazine never reveals how many copies are eagerly read by how many leads and how many end up in the trash, this can be very precisely controlled with a digital magazine, online magazine or web magazine.

Tracking analysis of the pages very quickly reveals how many readers have read which article, which videos they have watched, what they have clicked on and at which article they leave the magazine in frustration.

Simply by analysing an issue, you can often learn more than you would from a customer survey. This information is then used to further improve the content that the agency and staff create in the content hub, so that readers stay with the magazine and the company even longer.

By linking the magazine evaluation with the analytics data of the company’s website and its social media channels, the digital customer magazine becomes an important component of the customer journey.

Buttons and forms can also be included in the digital customer magazine, online magazine, web magazine to gain valuable information and leads that can then be used for marketing and sales.

A web magazine is not limited to the people who already know the company. Rather, it contributes to the content being found via search engines such as Google and thereby attracting new customers to the magazine.

In this respect, it is important that it be optimised by the web design agency, online magazine agency or digital customer magazine agency for search engines such as Google.

Of course, this also applies to the social media posts that are created on the basis of the web magazine. In short, a colourful bunch of valuable inputs can be generated here, which ensure a better ranking on Google and others.

Further advantages for Google and others include regular updating of the content, page titles with keyword and click invitation, fast loading speed, mobile optimisation, etc.