Digitally Marketing a Regional Magazine

In our brief to market our regional magazine we will be designing a billboard and creating a radio advertisement however I wanted to research into how regional magazines developed their marketing campaigns in the digital age.  This will give me a broadened outlook as to what regional magazines have included in their larger advertisements which will help make our radio and billboard advertisements more succinct to draw the public's attention.

Website

This is most common for regional magazine to be marketed. Websites are the easiest digital platform for all ages to use, creating an easy access source for older demographic.The audience who find genuine curiosity organically search, convert visitors to email subscribers.

A more high budgeted and popular magazine, like The Economist for example have a rotating ad at the top of their home page that speaks to both digital and print subscribers, asking “Which Economist reader are you?”Later down the home page, you’ll find a “refer a friend” promotion, offering access to their digital in exchange. In print sales The Economist UK edition lost 3.5% however in digital sales grew 72%.

In comparison, the website for Cheshire Life Magazine, doesn't contain those interactive savvy features.  The content isn't as organised, you get lost in different features on one page, so the information so there is new pieces of information jumping out at you.  because regional magazines aren't as well known this makes it quicker for a first time visitor of the page to get some understanding of what the magazine is about.  To add to this the subscription advertisements are further down the page as you scroll so the user has an understanding for what they're signing for

Email

Digitally subscribing to a magazine, if not automatically will always include an offer in your emails to directly target your audience. With the direct address to the subscribers it is convenient for their use and knowledge of new source of entertainment.  

Social Media

The use of social media in promoting regional magazines is a 21^stcentury medium to promote another.  For example, Cumbria Life Magazine featured a prominent promotion for the digital edition on their timeline.  Advertisements are circulated around Twitter and Facebook timelines, which encourages the idea that the magazine can be accessed wherever and whenever digitally.  Searching on my private Twitter for various regional magazines almost all had Twitter accounts and shared special features of what would be included in the upcoming issue.  They encouraged interaction with their readers including feedback and responses, which will enable them to grow and publish stories their readers are interested in.    

.    

YouTube is an incredibly popular marketing tool with all kinds of products advertising.  The user-generated content encourages small business owners and companies such as regional magazines to advertise.  Also due to the free content and upload makes it easy to access. It is a portable app in which you can do both upload and watch on various devices like smart phone or tablet 

Example of advertising on YouTube from Cornwall Living Magazine

Newsstand

Apple newsstand is the leading source for the vast majority of digital magazine buyers. Other options you may also have already considered include Amazon, Google and Zinio. I have seen a couple of  regional magazines on Apple newsstand however you have to manually type the name of the magazine for a hit being not the most popular general bought magazine.  Even further with the digitalisation of magazines, in the U.S,  Zinio, best known as a traditional newsstand, has launched a Netflix-style program called Z-Pass, in which the consumer pays $5 per month for any three magazines.   

Apps
“Free” magazine apps that have no actual free content are something consumers hate. In that free content, you have the opportunity to sell subscriptions and single issues.  The free apps there is the opportunity to promote one another. This is generally through suggestions to related apps or once you have downloaded the app advertisements for another free app with come on your notification targeting the audiences attention in more than one way. The rise of smart phones and tablets I am not surprised to find my local magazine, Wolverhamtpton Magazine available on Newsstand for iPad, to reach a larger audience.