Well before the pandemic arrived, many companies were already using digital publishing in their strategies. However, practically all business activities were compelled to adapt to online-only in the early spring of 2020. Businesses quickly pivoted to using digital publishing in creative ways. Here we’ve compiled some of the ways that digital publishing helped businesses adapt during the pandemic.
Touchless menus
Due to the risk posed by people touching the same menu, many restaurants and bars turned to touchless menus. And while posting menus online is not a new phenomenon, the pandemic was the catalyst for more restaurants to start publishing their menus digitally. More specifically: a digital format available for diners to consult instantly on their mobile devices while at the restaurant.
How it works: using their own mobile device, diners scan a QR code on their table. They are then redirected to the digital menu that is posted on the restaurant’s website or a digital publishing platform such as Calaméo. No need to touch a physical menu!
Thanks to digital publishing, restaurants are able to update their menus easily. Also, the public appreciates the convenience of reading the menu without coming into contact with a high-touch object like a physical menu. Our prediction? Digital menus are here to stay!
Digital business cards
Gone are the days of trading paper business cards with a new contact, only to lose them in the shuffle of countless other business cards in your possession. And as businesses moved online during the pandemic, there weren’t opportunities to meet face-to-face and trade business cards. Now it is easier than ever to create and publish business cards digitally. Consider switching to digital business cards so that contact information can be saved digitally in one place and there will be no risk of cards going missing.
Services
Limiting time in an enclosed space where other people are present is essential for stemming the spread of the virus. With this in mind, many businesses decided to upload their services onto digital publishing platforms. Now, customers can choose what they want before they come in person to receive their service (think: salons and spas). This avoids unnecessary time spent together inside. It also means that more time can be devoted to the service itself rather than discussing and deciding.
With many in-person businesses limiting the number of appointments they provide per day, posting their services on a digital publishing platform where customers can read and decide in advance eliminates the need to have long buffer periods in between appointments; therefore the business can accept more clients every day. It’s a win-win!
💡 TIP: Platinum members can use the “Overlay” option which inserts forms that open in your publication, useful for implementing pre-booking and virtual check-ins, for example
Digital flyers, brochures
In-person events are slowly coming back, but enthusiasm for the printed materials that come with them is not. Much like paper business cards, printed materials such as flyers or brochures are going out of fashion. Whether it’s a company brochure or a flyer announcing a new event, it’s likely that the printed materials will just end up in the trash. In addition, due to the risk of community spread, sharing materials digitally is a safer option. Not to mention the resources saved when you opt to go digital!
By using Calaméo’s platform and optimizing your content, your digital publication will wow potential clients. They won’t even miss the paper brochures and flyers of the past!
Digital publishing became a crucial tool that helped businesses adapt during the pandemic. The events of 2020 and 2021 have shown the world that digital publications are an efficient and safe way to distribute information. Now individuals and companies alike have adapted to this new way of consuming, creating, and sharing content.
Although you may think that digital publishing is only reserved for the world of books or magazines, this is not the case. On the contrary: the possibilities for digital publishing are endless! There is something for every field or area of interest. And the use of Calaméo is not limited to professionals; individuals can also take advantage of digital publishing for personal projects.
From homework to marketing brochures to your company’s internal newsletter, there are so many options for content that you can publish with Calaméo:
Until recently, education has mostly taken place in person and has not been very digital-oriented. The education industry as a whole has had to adapt to the current situation by sharing and distributing of all kinds of learning materials via the Internet.
🔎 EXAMPLE FROM L’ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE: this university brochure with information about a course shows one of the possible uses of digital publishing.
Lesson plans
If you’re a teacher, you can post your lessons directly on Calaméo so your students can access them from anywhere, anytime. Studying made simple!
If you’re a student, you can upload all the notes you’ve taken during your classes (online or in person) to share with your classmates or so you can consult them quickly and easily.
Activities
For clear assignment instructions that don’t get lost in backpacks, put them online so your students can find them easily. You could even create an online workbook with instructions and due dates that you update regularly throughout the school year.
You can post old homework assignments and answer keys online for your students to use for studying. If your students send you their assignments in a virtual format, you can also make the papers available as private publications so that everyone can see their own corrected papers.
💡TIP: so only your students can access your content, we suggest that you use our “Subscribers” feature.
Marketing
Marketing is particularly well suited for the Internet and its wide reach. So it’s not surprising to see that many brands have already taken advantage of digital publishing for their marketing needs.
🔎 EXAMPLE FROM LANCEL: a catalog with shopping links that send the reader directly to the product page.
Infographics
Post your infographics and visuals on Calaméo, then share them via social media, embed them on your website, or even on your blog. Digital publishing makes sharing easy! You can also add clickable links to send your readers to resources and articles that supplement the information in your infographic.
Brochures
Calaméo simplifies the purchasing process. Thanks to shopping links, your readers can see your product and then buy it in just a few clicks. Internet users see the article on the online catalog and click directly on it to land on the product page on your site where they can order it.
💡TIP: don’t hesitate to use shopping links in your brochures and catalogs.
Slideshows
Publish your slideshow presentations online and easily embed them in your site . No need to make your prospects download several PDFs; they can read all your documents in the viewer directly on your website.
💡TIP: thanks to detailed statistics on your Calaméo account, you can track your publications’ performance and refine your marketing strategies.
White papers
Show your expertise by publishing white papers on your line of business. Enrich these documents with enhanced media: videos, GIFs, and more. Make it a unique experience that will win over your prospects!
Publishing houses (and the “traditional” publishing world in general) are avid users of digital publishing. Here are some examples of how publishing houses use Calaméo:
Certainly, the most classic use of digital publishing is posting magazines online. You can find several examples of magazines on Calaméo for inspiration, starting with the Calaméo Magazine.
Publishing excerpts is a fantastic way to entice readers to continue reading and buy the whole book! This also allows the publisher to gauge the future popularity of a book (if the excerpt is published in advance) and makes sharing easy.
Complete works
Make entire works accessible to everybody (or only your subscribers) by publishing them on Calaméo and offering unique experiences like read alongs or a book club, for example.
Goodies
Enrich the world around a book or publication by offering exclusive experiences to fans of your literary series: a publication with explanatory maps, a behind-the-scenes publication with videos with the author and publisher, etc.
💡TIP: use our Editor to turn your publications into unique multimedia experiences!
Business
Using digital publishing for your business enables you to do so much, whether it be for internal communication, your sales division, or marketing.
🔎 EXAMPLE: You can find our guided tours, which are examples of useful sales tools, in several languages on our Calaméo profile.
Reports
What’s better than an annual report? An online annual report! With added interactivity (external links, internal links, videos, etc.), easy sharing, and compatibility with your medium of choice (tablet, smartphone, computer), your reports will be entirely unique!
Presentations
Put your presentations online so that your employees can access them at any time and from anywhere. Your documents will always be ready to go for your meetings.
Internal communication
You can improve your company’s internal newsletter by adding interactive elements like videos and external links. It will definitely liven up your internal communications!
Sales materials
As shown in the above example, publishing sales materials on Calaméo is an undeniable asset. First, because it enables you to send and share your sales materials with your prospects; and second, because it allows you to always be ready to present your sales pitch, wherever you may be! In fact, a smartphone is all you need to access your publications!
💡TIP: don’t hesitate to create Folders so that you can easily organize your publications.
Freelance
Whether you’re looking for a job or looking for clients, digital publishing has major advantages to offer.
🔎 EXAMPLE: a portfolio that presents a freelancer’s work.
Resumes or CVs
Give your CV a boost by making it interactive: add a clickable link so that recruiters can reach you directly, include a video presentation or external links to your previous employers’ websites, etc. The result: recruiters will take notice and remember you!
Portfolios
Gather all your work in one interactive publication that you can access from anywhere. It’s a simple way to show potential clients the scope of your talent.
Publish your tests and proposals privately and share them with your clients to receive feedback easily and simply; they will be able to see your publication from all their digital devices (smartphones, PC, tablets), from anywhere, at any time.
Administration
To always know where your documents are, consolidate them in a folder on your Calaméo account; whether it’s an Excel file that groups your job search data or another document that has to do with your activity.
💡TIP: Take care to make these documents private when you upload them to your account in case you don’t want to share them with the world!
Creativity
You don’t need to be a professional to use Calaméo. There are numerous uses for our platform and the possibilities are infinite! Here are a few examples for inspiration:
🔎 EXAMPLE: fan fiction written for a competition.
Photo albums
Gather all your photos in a document and transform it into a beautiful flipbook publication! Share the link to your publication with you whole family so everyone can enjoy it.
Personal documents
Upload your favorite recipes, your assignments, or any other personal document to find it and access it whenever you want. You no longer need to dig through your drawers: your documents are waiting for you on your Calaméo account!
💡TIP: if you want to use Calaméo for personal documents, make sure that you are only using private publications so that your documents are not accessible to anyone else.
Fan fiction
How about letting your creativity flow? Compose short stories, start writing a book – even better if you finish it – and share your writing with the whole world!
In conclusion…
Here is a publication that compiles all the ways that you can use Calaméo. Feel free to download it and keep it for reference and inspiration if you need more ideas.
So we have outlined some great ideas about what content you can publish with a Calaméo account. But it doesn’t end there! We are sure there are more uses that can be dreamed up, and you can make our digital publishing tools your own. In the meantime, if you don’t know where to start, feel free to browse our article ‘The ultimate guide to digital publishing‘.
Here on the blog, we show the details of different features that make Calaméo work for you. From virtual libraries to custom viewer themes, we’ve highlighted plenty of ways to bring your digital publications to the next level. But one tool that we haven’t talked about is the Calaméo API and how to use it.
Today we’re taking on the subject of Calaméo’s API. We’ll look at what API is and in particular ways that it can help simplify your digital publishing needs.
Short for Application Programming Interface, an API is the set of protocols that allows a particular program to communicate with a different program. A main advantage of having programs communicate with each other via API is that it removes the need for people to intervene between them.
For example, your business may use software to manage the content of your digital publications and Calaméo to publish them online. By connecting your content management system to Calaméo’s API, you can avoid having to transfer files manually from your software to your Calaméo account for uploading. You can instead configure your software to publish to Calaméo directly.
💡 TIP: To make use of our API, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and code. If you’re not already comfortable with software development, we recommend discussing your specific needs with a professional for best results.
As a PREMIUM or PLATINUM user, you can publish up to 10 documents every 15 minutes or make up to 10,000 requests per hour with our API.
The Calaméo API in practice
It’s easy to see that making smart use of API can be a real timesaver. However, seeing where to get started may not be quite as easy. You might want to use Calaméo’s API if:
You use your own software for managing content
You use your own software for managing subscribers
You use your own monetization system
You want to monetize your publications on Calaméo
One of our API’s most valuable uses for our publishers is to create a system for selling their digital publications. First, make Subscriber lists to control reader access to their publications. Then, link your publication’s subscriber protections to an external payment program. A simple development will let you collect revenue for individual publications, a series or a period of subscriber access.
How to set up API access
The first step is to be sure you have a Calaméo account! If you don’t yet, you can sign up here for free.
Next, create an API key and set its access to the external software you want to connect. This is where you’ll need to begin developing your own code.
Once your API key is configured, all you need to do is consult our list of the Calaméo API’s methods and decide what you need to get done. The exact configuration for publishing, managing subscribers and monetizing content will depend on the programs used by your business.
To sum it up: No matter what you wish to accomplish with your digital publications, Calaméo’s API can be a great resource.
