Creating useful content for their potential and current customers is becoming an increasingly common thing for companies around the world. A survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute says that about a third of companies in the world invest more than one hundred thousand dollars a year in the content marketing. Content can take many forms, not only articles in blogs, but also e-books, videos and podcasts. However, a lot of companies do not forget about printed materials such as magazines and brochures in their content strategy.
Can print be a competitive advantage?
Today, a lot of people would argue that the best time for printed materials is over. The same has been said of TV after the start-up of social networks and streaming platforms such as Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime or Disney+. However, no radical change has happened in terms of the popularity of TV in recent years, and TV advertising costs still represent the largest amount of the companies’ advertising costs.
But let us get back to print materials. At present, there has not been an increase in the printing of standard daily, weekly and monthly newspapers. However, this general statistic says nothing about whether your potential customers would appreciate your content in the printed form. How attractive print content is to customers can vary significantly from segment to segment, as the preferences of target groups are different. Your segment may be the right one for creating print content.
If you look around, you will probably quickly identify a lot of competing companies using the same strategy to address their customers – the same communication channels, the same types of advertisements, the same policy. This is true for most segments all over the world as well as in Slovakia.
Something common that is done by everyone, will be your competitive advantage just under one condition. You must be really good at it, or even the best. However, even being the best may not last forever, as there may be other competitors who want to be the beat you. One of the ways may be looking for opportunities which are not used by other companies in your segment.
Do you recycle?
This question does not refer to how you deal with waste. Content recycling is an effective tool for the content strategy that allows you to save costs by recycling content you have created in the past. You can turn articles which you create for your blog into a regular print magazine, for example, or change your e-book into a print publication.
A print magazine may include much of the content that can be transformed into a digital form, but it may also include content that the reader will not come across in a digital form and is therefore even more motivated to find the print version.
Mutual support
A print magazine can also be a teaser for your content in a blog/online magazine or another content platform. How to do it? It is simple. The article in the print magazine will not be published in the full version but will link to your website or blog. Of course, this strategy can work the other way around as well. It is up to you to decide whether your current priority is to direct people to the printed material or, conversely, to send people from the print magazine to the content published on your website and there, for example, motivate them to subscribe to your regular newsletter.
The goal is to create a mechanism or a living environment that holds the attention of your potential or current client, to build their trust and they will perceive you through the content in various forms (online and print) as the most relevant expert in the segment.
This way, you gain a tremendous competitive advantage.
How can you subsequently take advantage of this?
If you already have such material at your disposal, then there are a lot of options for how to make use of the content. For example:
- Choose address-based distribution and send the printed magazine to the predetermined addresses of your potential customers,
- Hand out the magazine at conferences and exhibitions you attend during the year, have the magazine freely available to your visitors at your shop or branch,
- Within your website, start building a database of customers who show their interest in what you do and you will send the magazine to their address.
You can also offer the magazine in the form of subscription. There are several examples of this all over the world, e.g., The Red Bulletin, the print monthly magazine of a well-known energy drink brand, which is now subscribed by more than 1.5 million people worldwide.
A TIP FOR YOU:
A print magazine can address a specific part of your target group. For example, if you operate in civil engineering, your print magazine does not have to be distributed to all end customers, but can be for a specific part of the market only – architects, designers, developers, etc. This way you reach a highly relevant audience at significantly lower costs.
Measure performance
Once you are engaged in a content strategy, do not forget to measure the effectiveness of your printed materials. You can use vouchers or various special offers and challenges made exclusively for print magazine readers. If your magazine links to a website, you can, for example, do a survey, how many people visited your website thanks the magazine.
Feedback is also important – ask your readers how satisfied they are with the magazine, if there is something they would like to improve or what they like about your print magazine. This is how you can continually improve your printed material over time and further increase its attractiveness and its value.
