6 ways to use digital publications in sales and marketing strategies

In STRATEGY
24 May 2017
Share

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, you’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

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.

In the example below, we see 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.

Monetize your digital publications

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 advert, one simple link gets your reader to the advert 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, as well as 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!

For example, here is how our client EU Jacksonville makes their publications consultable via their website.

Content lead generation

As many of us know, “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.

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.

In the following example, our client Union Omaha has enabled sharing, download and print options to allow for easy offline reading.

Leverage videos

According to Cisco, video content will account for almost 69% of consumer internet traffic in 2020. Marketers who fail to capitalize on this do so at their own risk!

Videos are naturally engaging and, 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 or YouTube videos in their digital publications to boost conversions and to offer a rich multimedia reading experience.

In the example below we see how the World DanceSport Federation is able to use video effectively to complement the content in their digital publication.

Include strategic CTAs

Call to Actions 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 buttons 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).

Check out an excellent example from Healthy Mama magazine, who promoted their Instagram account using a strong Call to Action.

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

If you have any other suggestions on ways digital publications can be useful to your sales and marketing strategies we would love to hear them! Reach out to us on Twitter or Facebook @Calaméo.

Related Posts
STRATEGY

5 innovations in the history of marketing from France

In STRATEGY
16 January 2020

As long as people have been selling things, they’ve been finding ways to attract customers. In other words, marketing goes a long, long way back. But did you know that some of the most important innovations in the history of marketing came from France?

Since we’re originally from Paris ourselves here at Calaméo, we took a look at five modern marketing innovations Made in France. Read on to learn more (and grab our très chic infographic to share)!

Free shipping (1852)

Before we dig in to the first innovation on our list, try to remember a time without free shipping. Does it seem like we were still paying those painful “shipping and handling” fees only a few years ago? Although free shipping feels like a 21st century necessity, customers of the French department store Le Bon Marché were already enjoying it in 1852. Any purchase over 25 Francs would be delivered to your home—at no extra charge.

And that’s not all. Le Bon Marché was the birthplace of a shopping revolution, thanks to new techniques such as newspaper advertising, in-store lounges and hands-on product displays. One last very modern feature to mention? A generous returns and exchanges policy.

Michelin Guide (1900)

Another of today’s marketing trends with a surprisingly long history is content marketing. Many trace its origin to France in 1900, when a tire company called Michelin published its first guide to the restaurants of France. With its free Guide, Michelin was hoping to encourage more French people to get behind the wheel and go grab dinner somewhere new. More hungry drivers traveling meant more tires to sell and marketing history was made.  

Over the years, the Michelin Guide has evolved and grown into a powerful standalone brand. The coveted three-star rating still indicates that a restaurant is “worth a special journey” to visit. And content marketers everywhere are still trying to repeat its success.

Eating well on the road

Eiffel Tower ad (1925)

By the early 20th century, outdoor advertising was booming. Posters covered city walls, shops put up signs and billboards were appearing all over. More importantly, lots of these signs began making use of electricity to catch people’s attention in the 1920s. But something totally new was French automaker Citroën’s renting out the Eiffel Tower to use as a giant, electric ad. In 1925, the brand lit up the landmark with more than 250,000 bulbs spelling out CITROEN down the iconic structure.

This innovation capitalized on a famous monument, Paris’s century-old “City of Lights” nickname and new technology to make Citroën a part of the skyline. Plus, it created a true event: the ad illuminated the Eiffel Tower every year until 1934.

Online news (1984)

The history of marketing in France took a big step forward in 1984, when media companies first started publishing news and other types of content online. However, it wasn’t quite the “online” that we know today as the internet. Although the world wide web was born in the 1960s, another kind of network was developed in France: the Minitel. Accessed via telephone, Minitel terminals let users connect to an entire ecosystem of online information and services.

Almost as soon as Minitel became available to French consumers, media companies like the newspaper Libération published content to the service. While the Minitel network was closed in 2012, French marketers proved that they were ready to experiment with new channels, monetization and technology.

Tablet showing AR view of architecture project

Beauty AR (2017)

In the same vein, the last French marketing innovation on our list has to do with using technology to connect with customers. Released in 2017, the “Virtual Artist” feature on French beauty company Sephora’s app takes advantage of shoppers’ mobile phones to help solve a difficult problem: how to try out new makeup outside of the store. Using the app’s augmented reality tech, beauty fans can virtually apply different products and shades—then shop what they love.

Because the Pokémon Go phenomenon had already gotten quite a few users acquainted with augmented reality on their phones, Sephora’s Virtual Artist came along at a great time. And the beauty AR trend is still going strong today.

That concludes our quick look at milestones in the history of marketing from France. What’s next for marketing innovations: virtual reality, the 5G network or voice? Only time will tell what the next entry on our list will be. Until then, click here to download our infographic to save and share.

Need to get innovative with your own marketing strategy? Sign up today for your free Calaméo account and kickstart your business’s digital publishing.

STRATEGY

SEO in 2020: Tips and Trends for your Business

In STRATEGY
12 March 2020

As the amount of content available online continues to grow, the most effective ways to be discovered from a simple search are changing. The basics of SEO in 2020 are still simple. Your content should be fully indexed, easy to link to and from and include relevant keywords in titles, descriptions and even URLs.

If you’re publishing your content digitally on Calaméo, you’re in luck—all of that is a snap to accomplish. So we decided to go a step further and look at some of the biggest new trends in search engine optimization strategy. Keep reading for the five things you need to know about SEO in 2020, as well as our best tips for your business.

SEO in 2020: Emerging Trends

MOBILE SEARCH

Our first pick for SEO in 2020 goes beyond just being mobile-friendly. Last year, 55% of all internet traffic came from smartphones and tablets. As a result, all of your content from blog posts to product catalogs should always be responsive. But to take advantage of the 58% of searches happening on mobile, every related element needs to be optimized for phones. Titles, descriptions and embeds should sized to display correctly on smaller screens so readers can more easily find and explore your content.

VOICE SEARCH

Next on our list is a trend that’s been buzzy for quite a while now: searching the internet by using your voice. For several years, the popularity of devices like the Apple Watch and Google Home has been increasing. Since these devices allow users to ask questions out loud and receive answers from Google, Amazon and other services, search engines have started taking voice into account as they index content. Although it seems unlikely that voice will take over search any time soon, you may want to try out getting some of your content voice-ready in 2020.

NATURAL LANGUAGE

In the same vein as voice search, natural language search is set to be an important trend for SEO in 2020. Originally announced in a Google search algorithm update at the end of 2019, BERT means that the search engine will focus less on individual keywords and more on user intent. In other words, Google will get better and better at understanding complicated and conversational searches. The good news? Natural language search should make high-quality content even easier to find.

MORE ADVERTISING

After introducing its natural language search update, Google shook things up again when it changed the design of search results. This redesign included site favicons displayed next to the URL snippet of organic results. But the small “Ad” label in the same place for paid results caused controversy about ads looking more like regular content than ever before. While Google ultimately removed the favicons from desktop search, the lesson for SEO in 2020 is clear: paid results are here to stay.

FEWER CLICKS

The last major SEO trend on our list is the growth of so-called “zero click” searches. That is to say, searches where the user does not click on any of the results at all. Instead, she finds the desired information directly on the results page and ends her search there. Almost half of all searches were zero-click on desktop in 2019. And that number topped 60% for searches on mobile devices. In short, the zero-click search adds another challenge to the SEO puzzle.

SEO in 2020: Quick conclusions

So what does all of this mean for your business’s online content? Here are a few simple recommendations.

  • Focus SEO efforts on essential content. With more competition for fewer clicks, don’t spend too much time trying to be the number-one result for every possible search out there. Choose keywords wisely and optimize your content so searchers can find you when it counts. And remember to consider potential natural language searches!
  • Boost your brand name in natural results. Despite the trends towards more ads in search results, you should still aim to be the top results for your own company name. Try customizing your account URL on Calaméo to increase your brand name’s visibility and optimize your publications.
  • Maximize direct user contact. Above all, SEO is one part of a larger digital strategy. If your business is using content marketing, for example, you’ll also want to encourage readers who find your content through search to become subscribers. Add sign-up forms to gather email addresses and stay in touch with your audience through their inboxes.

And there you have it—five big trends and three quick takeaways to help you get a handle on SEO in 2020. Not sure where to begin with your online content? Take a look at our Guided Tour to see all of the advantages that digital publishing has to offer on Calaméo.