The ability to include external links is a key feature of digital publishing. For many publishers, increasing the number of readers who click on their links is an important goal. The click-through rate (CTR) of a link will tell you which percentage of total viewers clicked on it. So what are some quick steps you can take to boost CTR in your digital publications?
Start Linking
The first step to boosting your CTR couldn’t be simpler: add external links to your publications! You can insert links with our easy-to-use Editor once your document has been uploaded to Calaméo. If you prefer to include links in your original document, be sure that you format them correctly and they will be automatically converted in your publication.
Consider Mobile
Did you know that over 50% of Internet users worldwide browse on their mobile devices? It’s true—and means you should always check how your links look on mobile. Thanks to our HTML5 viewer, your publications on Calaméo always display perfectly on any device. For example, this page from Longo’s Magazine with video and external links looks beautiful on a smartphone:
To ensure best results, we recommend opening your publication on your phone and test clicking. You may want to adjust the size of your links or experiment with custom link colors and behaviors to optimize them for mobile.
Include a CTA
Now that your readers can see all of your links as they page through your publication, it’s time to tell them why they should click. In other words, you can help improve your CTR with a “Call to Action” (CTA)! A good CTA will briefly give your audience an idea of what they’ll be doing once they click your link. To add a CTA to an external link on Calaméo, first open your publication in the Calaméo Editor. Next, select the link icon and type the CTA in the “Label” field.
The example above shows a strong CTA for a link to more information about an event or activity. Readers will know that by following the link, they can register for the event that interests them.
Analyze What Works
Understanding which of your external links have the highest click-through rate can offer valuable lessons. Is there a particular CTA that performs better than the rest? Perhaps links placed on a specific page or even on a certain spot receive more clicks than others. With advanced PLATINUM statistics, you enjoy access to a detailed breakdown of link clicks for each of your publications.
See the number of clicks on every link, including audio and video elements. Plus, the CTR is calculated for you automatically.
Equipped with these quick tips, you should in great shape to optimize your external links and boost CTR for your publications on Calaméo. Want to go even further to drive traffic to your website? Check out our post on 5 Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic with Calaméo!
If you have questions about your Calaméo statistics, it’s no problem. Visit our Help Center for more information or write to us at contact@calameo.com anytime.
Thanks to social media, delivering content to thousands of people at once is as easy as hitting the “Post” button. But it isn’t always easy to achieve the results you have in mind. That’s why we’re bringing you a new series all about making these channels work for your digital publishing needs. Our final entry: how to promote content with Twitter.
Why use Twitter to promote content?
As social media networks have evolved over the last decade, Twitter has taken on an increasingly complicated role. It began in 2006 as a simple “microblogging” platform designed to let users share thoughts of 140 characters or fewer, but tweeting has become especially popular among politicians, journalists and comedians. As a result, Twitter can be tricky territory for businesses in general and digital publishers in particular.
That isn’t to say businesses aren’t successfully using Twitter to communicate. The platform boasts 187 million monetizable daily active users that companies are eager to reach. However, achieving the elusive status of a brand that is “good at Twitter” may not be the most sensible goal for your business. In fact, unless you have a dedicated Tweeter on your social media team, you may find it challenging just to keep up with trending topics.
Instead, focusing on your audience provides a more practical option for digital publishers who want to promote content with Twitter. Customers are comfortable tweeting brands to ask questions, solve problems and offer feedback. Once your business’s account is set up, this kind of interaction makes Twitter a great place to have a conversation about your content. Read on for our best tips for including Twitter in your digital publishing strategy.
Embrace the format
First, consider the tweet. Although the text used to be capped at 140 characters, Twitter doubled the length of a tweet to 280 characters in 2017. But don’t be fooled by the extra room—any links you share in your tweet are included in the character count. In addition to being short, Tweets tend to have a short “lifespan.” Unlike the evergreen content of Pinterest or social posts on Facebook and LinkedIn, Tweets are usually seen by users for 15-20 minutes.
This brevity might make it seem awkward to promote content with Twitter if your emphasis is on longer, more immersive digital publications. One common strategy to get around this issue involves sharing your content multiple times. Since your tweets probably won’t all surface in the feeds of your followers, it’s a safe way to improve your publication’s chances of getting noticed. (Just be sure to tweet about something different in between!)
But even the savviest Tweeters know that overall, the platform is rarely a strong source of referral traffic. Research estimates that under 20% of social referral traffic to outside articles comes from Twitter. While that doesn’t mean you should abandon plans to promote content with Twitter, it should inform both your expectations and your strategy. To make a bigger impact, invest time in finding the right audience and having a conversation.
Find your niche
Before you can go looking for your ideal audience on Twitter, you’ll need to have a pretty good idea of the target audience for your content. In other words, who is your content created for? For example, a white paper might be aimed at B2B managers in your business’s field. Or a video about new fashion trends could be aimed at young adults. Knowing your target audience is an essential part of any digital publishing strategy.
Next, investigate where your target audience is active on Twitter. Despite the outsized attention that a few high-profile users attract, there are lots of smaller communities having their own conversations. The discussions among start-up founders, entrepreneurs and professionals happening on Business Twitter may be a good match for your B2B digital publications, but with a little research you can find communities for all kinds of interests.
Hashtags are a simple tool to help you promote content with Twitter in the right places. (No surprise there—modern hashtags originated on tweets back in 2009!) Identify a couple of hashtags that appear regularly in your target audience’s Twitter community. Then use them in tweets to share your digital publications. But beware: your tweet’s hashtags and overall tone should always fit your content. In other words, trendy hashtags, jokey messaging and lead generation rarely work together.
Define your goals
In the end, the success of your strategy to promote content with Twitter depends in large part on having a clear idea of what you hope to achieve. Because of their format, tweets may not prove to be a huge source of traffic for your digital publications. However, Twitter is a unique channel for keeping in touch with your audience. You may prefer to prioritize followers, profile visits and interactions over the number of clicks your content receives.
An audience-focused strategy still provides plenty of opportunities to share your content. For instance, you can choose a single tweet to pin to the top of your profile. Simply select a high-performing tweet that links to the digital publication you want to boost. This easy step has big benefits. Any user who stops by your profile is guaranteed to see your promoted content first.
Ultimately, the fast-paced conversation that happens on Twitter makes it a flexible tool for businesses. You may use tweets to broadcast service updates, offer customer support, advertise or strengthen your brand. But for digital publishers looking to promote content with Twitter, establishing your presence and opening up a connection with your audience is the best way to start.
Ready to start?
Now that you’ve got all the details about how to promote content with Twitter, it’s time to turn your online documents into great digital publications. Sign up for your free Calaméo account today and explore what digital publishing can do for you!
Have you ever seen an advertisement and immediately known which company it belonged to, even if you didn’t glimpse the name? Chances are you recognized certain facets of that company: special fonts, taglines, logos, and color combinations that belong unmistakably to a brand. These elements, and more, make up a brand’s identity. All visual and editorial aspects of a brand’s identity are determined by the brand’s style guide.
On the Calaméo blog we have talked about logos, brand identity and brand image. Next up? Brand style guides, sometimes called graphic charters or brand guidelines. In this article we will discuss the ins and outs of this important document, so let’s dive in!
First thing’s first: what is a brand style guide? A brand style guide is a document that governs all the visual (and sometimes editorial) elements of a company that make it recognizable and unique. It also explains when and how to use these elements. Simply put, a style guide is the key to all communications!
These guides ensure that there is no confusion when it comes to what the brand’s content should look and sound like. Using the guide as a reference, all company communications are consistent across channels and mediums. The style guide can be as detailed as you like; typically, larger companies have more comprehensive style guides because they are more likely to use a wider range of communication channels, and they appear in more places (television, print, online, etc.).
Who creates the style guide?
The creation of brand style guides is best left to professionals. However, it’s a collaborative process: graphic designers or design firms will work with you to create a style guide that suits your company and fits your brand identity. You must decide who you are, your values, and the image you’d like to portray to the world.
Why and how should you use a style guide?
A brand style guide is essential for your company’s brand identity. In order to maintain clear and cohesive communications across all channels, a style guide is the ultimate reference. Internal documents such as slide decks and employee newsletters, external communications such as advertisements or social media posts, plus everything in between: all of this content must look similar and adhere to your brand identity. To achieve this consistency, companies must have a brand style guide. Otherwise, logos may appear in the wrong colors and dimensions, there won’t be a uniform look to your communications, and your tone will be all over the place. Any communication that comes from the company, both internally and externally, should use the style guide as a reference.
What is included in a style guide?
Length and details may vary depending on the company, but a brand style guide is usually made up of the following visual and editorial elements:
Logo
Logos are a crucial part of a brand’s identity, its most visible identifier. Logos are images, texts, or shapes (or a combination of the three) in the company’s color palette that represent the company. A blue bird invokes Twitter, three stripes on a sneaker will certainly mean that they are Adidas, and a swoosh (both the shape and the word) is emblematic of Nike.
A company’s logo cannot be used haphazardly. The brand style guide should explicitly outline the exact colors and dimensions of the logo. Even the background on which the logo appears is specified in the style guide.
Take Calaméo’s logo, for example. The spacing and colors are exact: the dimensions around the lettering are determined by the height of the green accent, and the colors are specific to our brand.
There are other elements to consider. Do you have a slogan or motto with words as part of your logo? If so, you must clearly state where the slogan goes, how big it can be, the color(s) to use, and when to employ this version of the logo. There are many rules you must define in your brand style guide, especially when it comes to your logo.
Colors
Companies have specific brand colors, usually two to three, that they use in logos and branding. The style guide will include complementary colors as well. These colors all together are known as the company’s color palette.
Great thought and care go into a company’s color palette. There are even psychological tricks behind choosing certain colors that the company wants associated with the brand or product. They may want to demonstrate trust, youth, sophistication, or other descriptors.
The brand style guide should outline all the ways to find these colors: a visual representation of the color, HEX and RGB formats, and other formats if necessary. Rather than just “blue” or “red”, companies choose very specific shades of these colors that go well together and set them apart from other brands. These exact shades need to be used every time.
Examples of Calaméo’s color palette using the HEX values
Typeface
Another important element of the brand style guide is typeface. Typeface is the kind of lettering used in communications, which includes fonts. Does your company use only lowercase letters? All capitals? You must include the size, spacing, and color of your typeface in your style guide so employees know exactly how the typeface should look.
Work with a graphic designer to choose the best typeface for your company. Some brands even create their own fonts! Keep in mind that your typeface also reflects your tone– is it silly, serious, elevated? Your typeface must work well with the other elements of your style guide.
Images
Some brand style guidelines include rules about styles of images or photographs to use. These images must fit into the brand’s identity and remain consistent; you should not use a bright and airy photograph one day and then a dark and moody photograph the next. The rules could include using colors from the company’s color palette or desired emotions that the images should evoke (energetic, powerful, soothing). Images are available to download on sites like Getty Images, Shutterstock, or Unsplash, if your company does not have access to a photographer or photography studio to create your own images. However, make sure to check that you have the right to use the images.
Icons
Brand style guides may also include illustrations or icons. Consider the icons you see on a company’s website: a shopping cart to click on when you are ready to purchase or an envelope icon if you want to communicate with the company via email. These icons must be coherent across all platforms. Icons will, much like the rest of the elements of the style guide, reflect the brand identity. Whimsical, rigid, colorful, playful…your icons can express a lot about your brand!
A few of Calaméo’s icons
Tone
Your tone and voice give your brand a personality via the written word. Once you decide who you are, it should be easy to find your company’s tone The brand style guide may include different instructions depending on the channel– perhaps your social media tone will be slightly less formal than that of your advertisements, for example. The guide should include written examples so employees can see how to employ the tone in different situations. Think of the image you want to project, and stay consistent.
Applying your style guide to digital publications
So now that you know all about style guides, it’s time to apply this knowledge to your digital publications! Because digital publishing is a visual medium, consistent brand visuals make all the difference between an amateur-looking document and a professional-grade publication.
With Calaméo, you can personalize your viewer Theme, add your logo, and enrich your content yourself so that your digital publications match your brand identity. With our White Label feature for PLATINUM members, your publications appear in your name and image, without the Calaméo logo. Start your free trial today!
