On each flight and in all the waiting areas, I saw people holding, reading and engaging in print magazines.
Then, I spent the day listening to the state of content marketing in Europe at POMP Forum 2010 conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Here’s what I learned from the Julia Hutchison and Patrick Fuller from the APA (the association of branded editorial content in the UK).
The average time a reader spends with a custom print magazine is 25 minutes.
Custom print magazines get an average 44% response rate.
On average, custom print magazines see an 8% increase in sales (as opposed to those who don’t receive the magazine).
18-24 year-old men and women who receive custom magazines from a corporation are the most engaged of any age group (yes, really!).
Surprising, huh?
Then, I see this Fortune interview where they are investing heavily in the print magazine…including higher quality paper and significant design/font changes.
What does this tell me? When we develop a content marketing strategy, we need to look at all possible tactics to get the best return for our investment. While digital is hot, print may still be a key component to your strategy. It might be worth revisiting.
Good point, Joe. In a world where everybody runs to the latest marketing fad, sometimes it pays to be a contrarian.
NaniPrints
It’s nice to see this post. Thanks! While the print + web mix is definitely changing, the custom magazine is a very interesting use of digital and print on demand.
I continue to promote the idea that inn any comprehensive brand, there’s a place for print. See my blog posts about this at http://tinyurl.com/ycxkgtl and http://tinyurl.com/ycqgt78.
It’s going to be interesting to see how print recovers as the economy does. It will be a good measure of how much of its decline is a true paradigm shift and how much has been a factor of the economy, including marketing and advertising, having been in the toilet over the past 2 years! ~Nani
http://www.SZCCommunications.com Sarah Z. Cordell
Yay! After reading about the beating that consumer mags took in 2009, I’m very happy to see some good news relating to print publications.
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Joe Pulizzi is a leading author, speaker and strategist for content marketing. Joe is founder of the Content Marketing Institute and SocialTract. This blog looks at the trends in content marketing, and how marketers can learn to think and act like publishers.
Get Content Get Customers… the book that started the Content Marketing revolution. Learn how to develop compelling content and seamlessly deliver it to customers— without interrupting their lives.
Managing Content Marketing... how to put content marketing to work. Managing Content Marketing shows you, in detail, how to manage content marketing within your organization, whether you come from a small company or multi-billion dollar brand.
Get Content Get Customers… the book that started the Content Marketing revolution. Learn how to develop compelling content and seamlessly deliver it to customers— without interrupting their lives.
Managing Content Marketing... how to put content marketing to work. Managing Content Marketing shows you, in detail, how to manage content marketing within your organization, whether you come from a small company or multi-billion dollar brand.
Rethinking Print as Part of the Content Strategy: Fortune, APA Proving Print is Not Dead
I just took three flights to get to Slovenia.
On each flight and in all the waiting areas, I saw people holding, reading and engaging in print magazines.
Then, I spent the day listening to the state of content marketing in Europe at POMP Forum 2010 conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Here’s what I learned from the Julia Hutchison and Patrick Fuller from the APA (the association of branded editorial content in the UK).
Surprising, huh?
Then, I see this Fortune interview where they are investing heavily in the print magazine…including higher quality paper and significant design/font changes.
What does this tell me? When we develop a content marketing strategy, we need to look at all possible tactics to get the best return for our investment. While digital is hot, print may still be a key component to your strategy. It might be worth revisiting.