Turn your print content (magazines, brochures, catalogs) into digital publications

In MARKETING
4 September 2025
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Magazines, brochures, catalogs, programs, reports… your print assets usually represent months of editorial and design work. Once they’re printed, they live a few weeks… then quietly disappear.

Digital publishing lets you give them a second life: more visibility, easier sharing, real performance tracking, and a clear role in your marketing and sales strategy. The goal isn’t just to “scan your PDFs”, but to turn your print pieces into high-performing digital publications: interactive flipbooks, online magazines, enriched catalogs.

  1. Why your print content deserves a second digital life
  2. Auditing and prioritizing your print content
  3. Adapting your print content for digital publication
  4. Turning your magazines, brochures, and catalogs into interactive flipbooks
  5. Plugging your digital publications into your marketing ecosystem
  6. Measuring and improving the performance of your digital publications
  7. Why choose Calaméo to digitize your print content?

Why your print content deserves a second digital life

A content goldmine you’re not fully using

Every magazine issue, every brochure, every catalog is:

  • Weeks of writing and layout work
  • Interviews, visuals, case studies
  • Valuable product and corporate messaging

Once the campaign or season is over, most of this lives only in print. By turning these assets into digital publications, you extend their lifespan, expand their reach, and get more return on the original investment.

The limits of print alone: reach, updates, and tracking

Print has strengths, but also hard constraints:

  • Limited reach (print run, geography, distribution channels
  • No easy way to update once it’s on paper
  • No real insight into who read what, or for how long

Digital publishing doesn’t replace print, it completes it: same content, but available online, updatable when needed, and supported by real usage data.

What changes when you go digital

When you move into digital publishing, your print content becomes:

  • Accessible anywhere via a URL or QR code
  • Easy to embed on your website, product pages, or intranet
  • Measurable: views, reading time, pages viewed, clicks, conversions

Magazines, brochures, and catalogs shift from “campaign collateral” to evergreen content assets.

Auditing and prioritizing your print content

Spotting the assets with the highest potential

Start by taking inventory of what you already have:

  • Customer magazines, internal newsletters, company journals
  • Corporate brochures, company overviews, institutional documents
  • Product catalogs, lookbooks, sales brochures, training programs, and more

The goal is to identify content that’s still relevant, brings real value, and could resonate with an online audience.

Prioritizing based on business value and lifespan

Not every piece deserves the same effort. To prioritize, look at:

  • Content lifespan (an annual report vs. a very seasonal brochure)
  • Business impact (product catalogs, key offers, solution overviews)
  • Brand impact (employer brand, expertise, brand image — magazines, editorial content)

Start with assets that check at least two boxes: still current, useful for prospects/customers, and differentiating for your brand.

Giving each digital publication a clear role

For every future flipbook or online magazine, be explicit about its role:

  • Awareness / brand perception (magazine, journal, CSR report)
  • Lead generation (white paper, brochure, catalog with forms)
  • Sales enablement (catalog, product brochure, offer brochure)
  • Internal use (guide, manual, onboarding kit)

That will drive decisions about where it lives (website, landing page, customer portal, intranet) and how you enrich it (links, forms, calls-to-action).

Adapting your print content for digital publication

Reviewing the source PDF: quality, readability, structure

Most print-to-digital projects start from a PDF exported for print. Before turning it into a flipbook:

  • Check image quality (is it clear on screen, not just in print?)
  • Look at file size (are you shipping way more than needed?)
  • Make sure pages are properly structured (table of contents, sections, visual landmarks)

A clean source PDF is the foundation of a pleasant, performant flipbook once it’s online.

Designing for an online reading experience

Even if the content was created for print, ask yourself:

  • What does this look like on a phone?
  • Is the table of contents easy to spot and use?
  • Are the key messages visible at a glance?

The idea isn’t to start from scratch, but to anticipate the needs of a digital reader: clear structure, simple navigation, effortless readability.

Adding an interactive layer

This is where digital publishing really pulls ahead of print:

  • Internal links to key sections
  • External links to product pages, forms, videos
  • Optional embedded media (video, audio, maps, external content)

A brochure can link directly to a contact form, a catalog to specific product pages, a magazine to feature articles or campaign pages. You turn a static asset into a true interactive publication.

Turning your magazines, brochures, and catalogs into interactive flipbooks

Why flipbooks are a natural fit for print content

Your print assets were designed with a layout, page flow, and visual hierarchy. A flipbook keeps all of that:

  • It recreates the “magazine/book” feel with pages that flip
  • It preserves your layout, spreads, and visuals
  • It offers smooth, full-screen reading on any device

For a magazine, a carefully designed brochure, or a polished catalog, the flipbook is the natural bridge between print and digital.

The key steps in the conversion process

In practice, the process looks like this:

  1. Upload the PDF to a digital publishing platform
  2. Let the platform convert it into an interactive flipbook
  3. Configure the basics: title, description, keywords, visibility
  4. Add essential links and interactive elements
  5. Publish the flipbook and grab the link or embed code

Your magazine, brochure, or catalog becomes a digital publication you can share, embed, and track.

Customizing the reader to stay on brand

On a platform like Calaméo, you can customize:

  • Colors and key UI elements
  • Display mode (single page, spread, full-screen)
  • Which buttons are visible or hidden

On paid plans, removing ads and adding branding options makes the experience feel like a real online magazine or branded catalog — not just a random hosted file.

Plugging your digital publications into your marketing ecosystem

Building dedicated pages around your flipbooks

A common mistake is to simply drop a bare link. To really leverage your digital publications:

  • Create resource pages or landing pages with the flipbook embedded
  • Add an intro that explains what the document is for
  • Specify who it’s for and what they’ll get out of it
  • Include clear calls-to-action (contact, demo, request a print version, etc.)

The flipbook sits at the center of the page, but it’s framed and explained.

Bringing your digital publications into your campaigns

A few classic use cases:

  • Email: replace attachments with a link to an online catalog or magazine
  • Social media: tease a cover, table of contents, or key spread, and link to the digital publication
  • Events: add a QR code to your booth, handouts, or business cards so visitors can open the brochure or catalog in one scan

Your print content effectively becomes a gateway to your digital ecosystem.

Supporting sales teams and partners

Digitized magazines, brochures, and catalogs can be:

  • Added to a reseller or partner portal
  • Used as sales collateral in meetings or calls
  • Included in proposals and RFP responses

A digital publication is shared with a simple link, stays up to date, and can be reused as often as needed — no reprint, no shipping.

Measuring and improving the performance of your digital publications

The key metrics to watch

Once your print content has become digital publications, you can track for example:

  • Total views
  • Average reading time
  • Top-viewed pages
  • Clicks on links
  • Device breakdown (desktop, mobile, tablet)
  • Traffic sources

These metrics give you a concrete picture of how your former print assets are actually used.

Comparing magazines, brochures, and catalogs

After a few weeks or months, you’ll be able to:

  • Compare how an online magazine performs versus an interactive catalog
  • See which assets generate the most leads, clicks, or reading time
  • Identify the formats, sections, or topics your audience prefers

That helps you decide what to reissue, what to refresh, and what to push harder.

Creating a real continuous improvement loop

Digital lets you do something print never could: iterate. Based on your data, you can:

  • Refine tables of contents, headlines, and visuals
  • Test new ways of featuring your publications in campaigns
  • Keep critical information (pricing, ranges, offers) up to date

Your library of digital publications turns into a living, optimizable system — not just an archive of old PDFs.

Why choose Calaméo to digitize your print content?

A platform built for magazines, brochures, and catalogs

Calaméo is a digital publishing platform designed to turn PDFs into interactive flipbooks and online publications. It’s particularly well suited to print-based content:

  • Customer magazines, internal journals, editorial titles
  • Corporate brochures, sales brochures, institutional documents
  • Product catalogs, lookbooks, technical documentation

You upload your PDF — you get a flipbook that works on any screen.

An immersive, professional, fully on-brand reading experience

Calaméo’s immersive reader showcases your layout and design. On paid plans, you can:

  • Remove advertising
  • Match the viewer to your brand guidelines
  • Offer readers an experience that feels polished and consistent

For your magazines, catalogs, and brochures, this is crucial: your content is perceived as professional publishing, not just a file hosted somewhere.

A complete toolkit to track and grow your digital publications

With Calaméo, you get detailed stats for each publication:

  • Views, reading time, most-viewed pages
  • Link clicks
  • Audience and usage insights

Combined with your other tools (CRM, analytics, marketing automation), this data helps you turn your former print pieces into high-performing digital publications that support brand awareness, lead generation, and sales.

Try all our features today by starting your free 14-day trial of Calaméo PLATINUM.

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Content marketing: why you should create evergreen content

In MARKETING
19 January 2023

In the world of strategic marketing, we use a lot of technical terms, and sometimes it’s hard to get your head around them when you’re just starting out. So what is “evergreen” content? And why is it important to create this type of content as part of your digital strategy? 

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is a type of content that is not dependent on current events and remains relevant over time: it is timeless. The audience will always be able to find information in it that is interesting, regardless of whether they view it when it comes out, or 5 years later. 

Why should you create evergreen content?

Evergreen content is a real tool for your brand, your marketing strategy and your digital strategy. It brings many benefits, and should be the foundation of your content marketing strategy.

Here are the major benefits of evergreen content in your strategy:

  • Assert your expertise: offering high value-added and timeless content will allow you to have an expert image with your customers and prospects. 
  • Improve your SEO: your cold content is more efficient to improve your SEO, because it will still attract readers, even after months of online publishing, and is generally more qualitative and longer than hot content. 
  • Optimize content creation: on the one hand, you will need less time to make sure your content is updated, and on the other hand it will also allow you to recycle it several times and in various formats.
  • Attract a qualified audience: your cold content will ensure you a qualified audience, because it is typically informative content, with high added value and which gives confidence in your brand.

As you can see, these are very important benefits. You should definitely include evergreen content in your content marketing strategy to optimize it.

Examples of evergreen content for your brand

Since it is now clear that evergreen content is very important for your brand, here are some examples of content to create: 

  • FAQs: answer the questions most frequently asked by your customers and prospects.
  • Tutorials: explain how to use your product.
  • White papers: show your expertise on a specific topic.
  • Case studies: demonstrate the usefulness of your product from your customers’ perspective
  • Infographics: Put useful information in an easily shareable and saveable format. 
  • “How-to” blog posts: Inform your audience about best practices and key topics in your industry.

You can adapt this list as you wish: make tutorials in the form of videos or guides, for example. Offer a live Q&A and repost the replay so it’s always available. And much more! Just make sure your content is useful and will remain timeless by sticking to your brand and its identity as much as possible. 

In conclusion, it’s important for your brand to create evergreen content, whether it’s to fortify your brand image, establish your expertise or improve your SEO.

However, content discussing hot topics should not be totally eliminated from your content marketing strategy. Company news, such as the arrival of a new product on the market, or the organization of an event, is an opportunity to create content that helps connect your audience to your brand.

In this idea, Calameo is your best asset for the online publishing, distribution and statistical follow-up of all your contents. Test the extent of our professional and innovative digital publishing offer now with our 15-day free trial. Request your free trial of Calaméo PLATINUM by clicking here.  

MARKETING

All About Logos

In MARKETING
11 April 2019

From city skylines to our own mobile phone screens, logos are a major presence in modern life and a key part of any business’s brand. But did you know just how old logos are? Their history goes back to the Middle Ages, when British pubs were required by law to identify themselves with an illustrated sign.

After the invention of the printing press in 1439, logos quickly made the jump onto the page and appeared in printers’ marks, classifieds, products and ads. Although many classic logos like the vintage Coca-Cola script are still used today, digital technology allows logos to do more than ever.

In this article, we’ll reveal three easy ways to put your business’s logo to work on your digital publications.

ONLINE REACH

The most important place that your logo should go is in your digital publication! Since Calaméo’s fun, immersive flipbook format allows readers to focus on your content, including your logo on the page creates stronger impact for your brand.

Be sure that your logo figures prominently on your publication’s cover, like in this example from AvidGolfer magazine. You’ll want it to be visible when sharing your publication on social media to enjoy maximum reach in your audience’s feeds. Plus, you can get even more exposure if your publication is selected for the #CalameoCoversClub!

IMPROVED VISIBILITY

Next up is your publisher account page on Calaméo. You can effortlessly add your logo as a profile picture by uploading a .PNG or .JPG file up to 5 MB. (Have an animated version of your logo? You can even use a GIF here for a little extra pizzazz.)

Displaying your business’s logo on your Calaméo profile gives it a professional look, but filling in details of your account page also comes with SEO benefits. In just a few minutes, you can polish up the account name, description, logo and website and make it even easier for readers to find your publications.

DIGITAL SIGNPOST

Last but not least, add your logo to our viewer so that it becomes part of the reading experience. With our PREMIUM and PLATINUM plans, you can include a logo and link to your website. Not only is doing so great UX, it also supports your lead generation strategies and helps drive traffic to your site.

Users can always move smoothly from reading your publication to checking out your site, without having to enter your URL or hit the back button in their browser. All thanks to your logo!

💡 TIP: To remove our logo from the viewer, upgrade to PLATINUM today and start publishing in White label.

With these three quick and easy ideas, you should be all set to start using your logo in digital publishing to boost your brand.

To take the next step, consider creating a custom Skin for your publications. You’ll be able to match every detail of the Calaméo viewer to your business’s visual identity, get creative with your logo and more.

Head on over to our new CALAMEO Magazine to see how dynamic a custom Skin can be!

For more information on all things Calaméo, browse our Help Center. You’ll find the complete documentation on customizing the viewer Skins on our Developers page. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have questions! Our Support team is standing by at contact@calameo.com to help as quickly as possible.