Have you ever published a digital magazine and received fewer readers than you had hoped for? Or do you have a loyal subscriber base but you’d love to increase these subscribers? The key is sharing and recommendations from current readers. Your existing readers and subscribers can very easily reach out to their friends and colleagues…but they need a reason, a driver to do so. Here are our top tips:
1. Make it easy for your readers to share
If you want your readers to do something then you need to make it as easy as possible for them. Firstly the content has to be unique, interesting and worthwhile to be shared. Your readers will want their friends to be grateful of receiving this content…they don’t want to be seen as passing on uninteresting material. Also ensure that if you want to encourage sharing that you enable the sharing features in 3D Issue. This simple button in the interface allows readers to easily select to share via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or email. You could also use the ‘intro’ area to the left of the front cover to add a custom image or message highlighting sharing options.
2. Give your readers a great first impression
You need to keep your subscribers happy, and this starts with giving a good first impression. How? Well is it easy for them to access the publication – do you have attractive ‘read our latest issue’ button on your site? When the reader clicks to read the digital edition does it load quickly? (TIP: Remember in 3D Issue you can enable the ‘load controller’ to launch large publications faster, and control the quality and size of the publications) Can your mobile readers on iPads or other mobile devices also view a stunning fully digital page-turning version? (TIP: Check the mobile and tablet output options for creation of HTML5 digital editions for these readers) It is often extremely worthwhile asking someone unfamiliar with your publication to test it out and give their honest feedback, you can then make any necessary adjustments before sending out to your subscribers.
3. Provide a ‘subscribe’ route
Revisit the process of signing up to your publication. How easy is it for a new customer to opt in to receive the newsletter / brochure / magazine? Do you have a user friendly sign up page that is reachable from key pages on your website? Can your existing subscribers forward on the publication to their friends? Put yourself in the position of a new visitor to your site and go through the process, noting any opportunities which could be tapped into to increase your subscriber rate. For more information on making the most of your subscriber sign up page check out this article
4. Think about timing
Often the key to people forwarding on your publication is dependent on when they receive it themselves. For example do you receive a bunch of emails first thing in the morning that you then automatically ignore whilst you address important actionable emails in your inbox? You want to try and avoid your digital edition link via email hitting the subscribers’ inboxes at the wrong time. If you catch them at the right time they are more likely to a) open it b) read it and then c) recommend to their friends.
5. Write killer headlines
Following on from the last point, you need to ensure you have the highest chance of your publication being read so that they can then recommend it themselves. If the subscriber does not read it then there is 0% chance that they will recommend to their friends to read. Therefore revisit all the routes of how the subscriber receives and accesses your digital publication – are your headings, links and access text inviting and exciting enough to make the subscriber open and move forward with reading the publication?
