Using digital publishing in your sales and marketing strategies

In MARKETING
14 October 2021
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User appetite for content is stronger than ever as consumers demand access to information, anytime and everywhere. Due to these expectations, digital publishing has quickly become an essential part of business models around the world. In this article, we’ll explore 6 effective ways digital publications can prove useful in your sales and marketing strategies. Plus, see great examples of how Calaméo can help you implement them!

Utilize email marketing and newsletters

Creating attractive email newsletters for your clients can be a major asset to your marketing strategy. That’s because it allows you to reach a place that most people use every day—their inbox. You can optimize this platform even further by promoting valuable content up front to your readers with digital publications.

🔎 EXAMPLE: We see below how the Calaméo marketing team used an email newsletter creatively to promote the Guided Tour digital publication. Note the use of descriptive text and bold graphics for maximum impact.

Optimize advertisements

The best sales and marketing strategies leverage technology to convert audiences into buyers. With online publications you can link your readers directly to your advertiser’s website by using the Calaméo Editor. Instead of relying on your readers to have enough interest to remember to search the information displayed in a print advertisement, one simple link gets your reader to the ad in seconds.

Offer a window to your brand

Of course, you already have a website where you drive traffic via organic search, convert visitors to email subscribers and sell your numerous products. But don’t forget to showcase digital publications there, too!

Online content consumption is at an all-time high. So displaying digital publications on your website is a great opportunity to get your message across to a target audience. This will also build credibility in the eyes of potential customers. You can compile all of your online publications in your very own newsstand with the Calaméo library widget. Create a window to your brand and maximize the power of your digital content—a clever marketing tactic!

🔎 EXAMPLE: Here is how our client EU Jacksonville makes their publications consultable via their website:

Content lead generation

Content is king and can prove very effective in your sales and marketing strategies if executed successfully. Releasing digital publications can be highly useful for lead generation. Because they provide value up front, this content can help educate potential leads and showcase your product or service in a creative way.

💡 TIP: Calaméo offers PREMIUM and PLATINUM users the possibility to add elements to digital publications to help make the content more accessible and improve the user experience.

🔎 EXAMPLE: The town of Asnières, France has allowed for easy offline reading of their newsletter by enabling the share, download, and print options. When you click on the publication, you will see all of these options available in the upper right-hand corner of the viewer.

Leverage videos

Today, video is a key element to any marketing and sales strategy. Marketers who fail to capitalize on this do so at their own risk!

Videos are naturally engaging and attention-grabbing. In an age of information overload, it’s important for marketers to offer content that is easy to digest. Calaméo enables PLATINUM users to insert Vimeo, Dailymotion, or YouTube videos in their digital publications to boost conversions and to offer a rich multimedia reading experience.

🔎 EXAMPLE: The Club Med Trident magazine uses video effectively to complement the content in their digital publication:

Include strategic CTAs

Calls to Action (CTAs) in your digital publications guide your readers through the buying journey and can turn visitors into loyal customers. The Calaméo Editor enables you to create links within the pages of your digital publications. This feature can be used to encourage “soft” actions (e.g., driving the user to another piece of content) or to promote an actionable next step (e.g., Subscribe to our YouTube channel now).

🔎 EXAMPLE: Cambridge University Press encourages readers to “Start your free trial” of their learning platform using a CTA that links to their website:

There you have it. We hope you can see just how important digital publications can be for your sales and marketing strategies!

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Measuring “dark social” shares on Calaméo

In MARKETING
1 April 2021

Do you know the term “dark social”? Although a lot has changed about social media since the idea was first described in 2012, dark social sharing is as important as ever. In fact, this type of sharing might be even more key to understanding your content’s success today. Read on to learn why dark social matters in 2021 and how to track it for your digital publications on Calaméo.

Dark social sharing basics

All the way back in 2012, people were beginning to wonder how much content was being shared to social media networks. Or how much content was being shared in other ways. Because networks like Facebook and Twitter were growing fast, share buttons popped up all around the web to make reposting to your own feed easy—and trackable.

But while the number of shares ticked up, this new behavior couldn’t be the only way users were passing along videos, publications and posts. Despite the buzz around social feeds, research showed that plenty of people were sharing in a simple way: copying and pasting the content’s URL into email and messages. Unlike regular social shares, this kind of social activity wasn’t tracked.

As a result, it was easy to miss dark social sharing’s value. However, over the past several years sharing to social media platforms has declined. There are several reasons to explain this trend, including algorithm changes, rising interest in digital privacy and concerns about how information spreads online. Since more than a third of businesses say that “social shares” are a goal for their content, these harder-to-see forms of social sharing must be taken into account.

💡 TIP: Not sure whether social shares are a priority for your publications? Our quick checklist will help you brush up on your digital publishing strategy in no time.

How to track shares on Calaméo

So, how should you track the “dark social” sharing of your content? When it comes to your digital publications, Calaméo’s advanced statistics are a great place to start. That’s because our publication viewer’s own share button was designed with lots of different uses in mind. Take a closer look and you’ll see some options beyond the usual social networks.

Even better, the Shares section of your Calaméo statistics will show you just how many times your publication was emailed, embedded or its URL copied. And the results might surprise you. For example, we were checking the stats for our most recent issue of CALAMEO Magazine and noticed this breakdown:

  • 30% shares to social media platforms
  • 70% “dark social” shares to email, embed or copying URL

To access your publications’ Shares data, go to the Statistics section of your Calaméo account. Click on the “Shares” tab and scroll down to find the full statistics.

Also, be sure to note that these numbers only reflect “dark social” shares coming from inside the publication viewer. You can almost certainly be sure that other readers have, for instance, copied and pasted the publication URL directly from their browsers to share with their networks. Or to put it another way, public social shares may only be telling you a small part of the story.

💡 TIP: To keep digging deeper into the impact of dark social sharing for your content, consider using tracked links and Google Analytics to reveal more data.

In short, social media metrics don’t give you the whole picture when you want to measure how your content is shared online. If you’d like to start looking at complete Shares statistics for your publications on Calaméo, request your free, two-week PLATINUM demo today.

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MARKETING

Real estate: 3 content marketing tips

In MARKETING
22 June 2023

As a real estate agent, you need content to attract customers and sell properties. By creating quality content, you can stand out from the competition and establish your expertise. In this article, we’ll discuss three ways to create content for real estate players.

Use quality photos and videos

Photos and videos are essential for selling a property. You need to ensure that photos and videos are of professional quality. This means using a quality camera and having a good command of angles and lighting. It’s also important to highlight the key features of the property for sale. Videos are an excellent way of showing potential customers all the details.

Create educational content

In addition to promoting properties, real estate agents can create educational content to establish their expertise. This can include blog posts on local real estate market trends, property buying guides or tips for sellers. Potential customers will appreciate educational content and be more inclined to trust you to guide them through the buying or selling process.

Publish on Calaméo

Calaméo is an excellent tool for real estate agents looking to create digital content. You can publish digital brochures to showcase properties, for example. These brochures can include photos and videos, as well as detailed property descriptions. What’s more, our EDITOR tool lets you add links and redirect your customers directly to your website. We also recommend using Calaméo to share white papers and educational articles about the real estate industry.

Conclusion

Creating quality content is essential for real estate agents. Professional-quality photos and videos are essential for selling a property. You also need to offer educational content to establish your position as an expert. Finally, Calaméo is an excellent tool for creating professional-quality digital content.