50 ULTIMATE DIGITAL EDITION TIPS&TRICKS THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CREATE STUNNING DIGITAL EDITIONS INTERACTIVE MEDIA HOW TO GRAB READERS’ ATTENTION USING YOUR TRACKING 50 ULTIMATE TIPS&TRICKS Here’s a list of our top tips to help you make the most of your digital 3D Issues. Check them out, ranging from quick fixes to strategic choices. 01 Design for ‘Scanners’ Online readers often skim read digital editions. With this in mind consider shortening online versions and make headings large and eye-catching. 06 04 Promote useful links Use the contents menu in the interface to add links to urls on your site which readers of your publication may also find useful. This contents menu can link to web pages as well as page numbers of your publication. 05 Name your publication carefully Did you know that the file name of your publication forms part of the url? So add some ‘key words’ to the file name to help with the SEO. Uses for the Advertising Banner If you do not use the advertising banner, have you considered using this space to convey a message to your readers? Perhaps you have a new product about to launch…create a jpeg and upload to display in this top area. 02 Advertising revenue streams If you’re not integrating advertising into your digital editions consider if this is something you could. You could start with simple banner advertisements then add in-page adverts if it proves successful. 03 Decrease waiting time for readers Perfect for publications over 100 pages. Enable the ‘Load Controller’ this lets you specify the number of pages to load at one time. 07 Background image selection When choosing an image for your background consider that the image will be stretched to fit individuals’ brows- ers. Textured or abstract images therefore work well, images with people not so well. 08 About us? needs to be About you! Don’t forget to change the ‘About Us’ text. This can be found in ‘Translations’ in the software. This About Us text is displayed to your readers when they click on your logo. 09 Set the zoom to suit your design You have the option to zoom to single page or double. Select the best option for your page design, so if your brochure is designed as double page spreads then zoom to double pages would probably suit better. 10 Let your readers ‘take notes’ All the content added via Notes is stored locally on the reader’s PC or Mac so even when a reader reads on-line the notes are saved and accessed via 3D Issue. 11 Change button titles to suit your publication In the ‘translations’ section of the software you can change any of the text that appears to your end readers. For example you could rename the button ‘Archives’ to ‘Editions you may have missed’. 12 Don’t leave the SEO blank If you leave the ‘SEO info’ incomplete then you are really missing out customers finding your publication via search engines. Consult your web contact in your company and decide on your keywords and meta data. 13 Act on results – good and bad The data you will gather from the reader analytics can high- light good and bad results. If a section of your brochure has a high exit rate then look at what may have caused this. 14 Know your goals Once you start recording metrics from your online publi- cations, keep a record of the results so you can bench- mark each issue’s performance. It’s also important to set goals and define what determines success. 15 Track your publications One great advantage of digital over print is you can see exactly how the publication is performing. Be sure to add in your Google Analytics account ID in the ‘content’ section to start tracking! 16 Customize your buttons You probably know that you can quickly add video embed- ded or using the video button, what a lot of people don’t know is that those buttons can be swapped out for whatever icon you’d like. Simply choose ‘Options’ and ‘Button Images’. 17 Test & Adapt Its a great idea to test out layouts and gain reader feedback, if you have a feature article or call to action that needs to be prominent in the publication try different placements, and see which placement gets found and responded to the most. 18 Get Feedback! If you are introducing a digital version of your print version get a handful of existing print readers involved with testing, listen to any concerns and adapt the publication accord- ingly, also watch how readers use and navigate through the digital magazine. 19 21 Provide usability info In the 3D Issue software there is the area to the left side of the front cover which we refer to as the ‘intro area’ . This area is a great opportunity to display some quick hints and tips of getting started with the digital edition…. we even provide cus- tomers with a file that can be placed here which can be used for this purpose. Use the right video placement option You can have your videos play in your digital editions one of two ways. From the interactivity menu in the software you can select ‘embedded ‘ or use the video ‘button’. Choose embedded if the video fits well inside the page - consider dimensions. If the video needs a larger area to play and to have a key focus then consider having the video launch from the video button which opens the video playing in an overlay window. Both options are valid in different situations. 20 Don’t keep your readers waiting People don’t like waiting and are getting increasingly impatient when it comes to viewing online content. It’s important to get the balance between the quality of the publication and the load speed. Adjusting and testing the image quality settings of your online magazine can ensure you get this balance right. 22 Involve the wider team members Communicate with your colleagues prior to launch, let them know the key messages, the publications’ location online and any other information about your digital edition that is useful – involving your team can give you valuable extra resources. 23 Cross link your editions Don’t forget to utilize the ‘archive’ feature, whilst you have a reader flipping through your digital edition you can direct them to other issues that could be of interest or that they have previously missed. 24 Ensure your publications are mobile friendly 3D Issue Version 5 will automatically generate HTML5 editions as well as flash versions of your publications. This means that the two versions of each magazine are created and uploaded to your website, then when a user comes to view one of your digital magazines their browser is checked and they are automatically shown the most suitable version for the device they are on. So….ensure you check the ‘Mobile Devices’ and ‘Tablet Devices’ in the ‘Online’ dropdown 25 Offer advertisers more choices Unlike print, digital editions can offer so much more than standard flat adverts. Allow them to add audio descrip- tions, video descriptions or flash animation. 26 29 Follow the KISS strategy (Keep it simple stupid) Do not over do it! Digital editions are a perfect example of good user experience design, so “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Do not flood the magazine with too many distractions. Do not detach the readers’ focus. This will only irritate the reader. Price Fairly If you are going to charge readers to access your digital editions then charge fairly. Tools like 3D Issue allow you to generate digital editions without any extra cost or recurring charges. The reader is wise enough to know that the cost of generating a digital edition is a fraction of the cost involved in getting a print edition into their hands. 27 Customize and personalize Be sure to utilise the appear- ance options to fully custom- ise the skin of the publication to suit your brand identity. 28 Create contents menu templates If you have a publication that follows the same format each month/week/ edition then you can save a lot of time by creating a template for the contents menu. Then once created you can simply re-load the template and adjust the pages numbers accordingly. 30 Be Social Allow your readers to become your marketer. Allow your readers to forward direct links to articles of interest directly to their social media sites such as Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn. This is nearly as valuable as search engine visibility in today’s market. 31 Differentiate your content Readers now have so much choice, by a simple search using just a few key words readers, are presented with a number of articles, news and opinions. To enhance the value of your publication the content needs to be unique, to stand out from the other choices presented to the reader. It is the unique articles and content on the web that makes the reader want to share this publication or article amongst their social networks. 32 Make the most of 36 Know your readers A digital magazine gives the opportunity to create a unique experience for the reader. Whereas printed editions provide a static format; video, audio, flash, links and interac- tivity are all features of digital magazines create a unique user experience. 37 Act on results – good and bad digital features 33 Create contents menu templates If your publication follows the same format each edition then you can save time by creating a template for the contents menu. Then you can simply re-load the template and adjust the pages numbers. 34 Structure the archive Did you know your archive pop up window can be structured in tab format? You could consider having a tab for each year or if you publish different titles a tab per title. 35 SEO profiles create a different SEO profile for each publication. This will give your digital publication a better chance to rank higher on the niche key words and terms. Do you really know what they love and dislike about your publications? Ask them. Set up a free online survey and discover what you could do to enhance your content, look, feel of your editions. The data you will gather from the reader analytics can high- light good and bad results. If a section of your brochure has a high exit rate then look at what may have caused this. 38 Sizing your banner ads The height should be 60 pixels as this is consistent regardless of the end reader’s browser size. The width however requires a little thought at design stage. 39 Replacing pages quickly! If you notice a page in your digital edition that needs changing fast (a typo or advertiser’s details changed?) you can open the 3D Issue and replace that page without starting again! 40 Change look of your hotspots You can change not only the colors of the roll over and roll out states of your hotspots but you can also change the opacity and add a sound to them if you like. Head over to the options tool bar at the top of the screen and select ‘hotspot settings’ 41 Let readers download related files Did you know you can use the ‘download file’ or ‘open file’ buttons to allow readers to get access to files without leaving the digital edition? Great for related order forms, booking forms etc.. 42 Videos and audio 45 Create and maintain a subscriber When adding a video or audio file to play from your 3D Issue you will see an ‘advanced’ option in the pop up window. Selecting advanced allows you to have access to several more options, one of which is to ‘auto-start’ If you have an email subscriber list then send out the email with the digital magazine to your subscribers as a priority. If you don’t have a subscriber list, there are lots of easy to use, cost effective email marketing solutions available. files ‘auto play’ 43 PDF bookmarks converted If your original PDF has bookmarks then these will be retained and added to your digital edition! 44 Where’s the next step? Remember you can set where your readers should go when they hit exit - so if you have more information on the particular product or service the eBook is about then send them to that further information. database 46 Make older issues available Ensure you add your publications to your digital archive. This means that readers of future and older publications in this series can access this edition too with the click of the mouse (or tap of the finger!) Here’s some more information about adding your digital publication to your archive. 47 Create App Style icons for iPad and iPhone readers In the ‘options’ menu within the software you will see the option to add in your own customized ‘app icons’ this means that your readers can download an app icon to their home screen for quick, full screen view. 48 Create an iPad offline version Consider creating a version for offline iPad readers. With 3D Issue you can also create epub formats – eBooks which can then be downloaded to then accessed when the reader needs it in the iBooks app. 49 Create teasers Provide a snippet to the publication to gain interest of your publication. Post an intro to an article or survey findings, then provide a link for them to get access to the full publication download. 50 Auto publish your newsletters With PressJack you can create auto formatted digital maga- zines from your blog/RSS. Perfect for your newsletters. FIND OUT MORE OTHER FREE LEARNING RESOURCES VIDEO TUTORIALS The 3D Issue video tutorial gallery has a clip on every feature of the 3D Issue software. Watch us create a digital edition from scratch. From adding your PDF documents, adding rich media then uploading your publications to your website. It’s all covered. LIVE WEBINAR Sign up and join one of our daily webinars. Watch one of our experts take you through the 3D Issue software step by step. The live sessions offer new users the perfect starting point and you can ask questions along the way. USER MANUAL The 3D Issue User Manual can be downloaded and kept as a reference document. Check the specs or details of particular features when you need further information. The guide can be downloaded for both the Lite and Professional software.