Newsletters (Part two): Making your newsletter a success

In MARKETING
17 March 2022
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Welcome to the second and final part of our series on online newsletters. The first article in this series focused on the content of your newsletters (for a refresher, here is part one). In part two, we will focus on the important steps to take before and after creating your newsletter to ensure its success.

Set goals and track statistics

Before sending – or even creating – your newsletter, you will first need to determine your newsletter KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. These are the metrics that you set in advance to help measure the success of your publication. Once you determine your metrics, you can set goals around them.

There are many reasons for setting goals for your newsletter. Perhaps you want to sell ads, or you are hoping to reach an international audience. So before starting your newsletter, establish your goals and the metrics to measure them by (we can help!).

After you have set your goals, created your newsletter, and shared it with your audience, you will be able to track your publication’s statistics. By tracking who reads your newsletter, which links get clicked, and the devices your readers are using, you will be able to tailor your future newsletters to your audience and reach your goals. Luckily, Calaméo users have access to their publications’ statistics to track how well they are performing! For further insights, PLATINUM members can link their Calaméo accounts to Google Analytics.

💡 TIP: Learn all about analytics with Calaméo and which goals to set for your publications!

Private vs. public

With digital publishing, you have the luxury of choice when it comes to distributing your publication: disseminate your newsletter far and wide, or share it with just a select few. You can target your newsletter to a small audience or make your publication available to everyone.  If you change your mind down the road about who can view your newsletter, you can adjust your privacy settings – even after you’ve published the document.

By opting to make your newsletter public, the text may be indexed by search engines. If there is information that you don’t want available to the public, make sure to set your publication to private.

There are a few options if you decide to make your publication private. You can:

  • Make your publication available to you only.
  • Make your publication available through a private URL. This means that your publication will only be accessible to those you share the private URL with, it will not appear on the Calaméo website nor will it be indexed by search engines. This option is available to all users. 
  • For a more secure private access, PREMIUM and PLATINUM users can make their publications available only to their Subscribers, through username and password access.

Distribution

Finally, a crucial aspect of newsletters is how they are distributed. You’ve chosen who to send your newsletter to, so now it’s time to choose how you’d like to share your newsletter with your audience.

Consider the following options:

Try a system of A/B testing to see which distribution methods work for you. Find the best channel for your requirements and your readers’ needs. Sending your publication via the appropriate channel will increase the likelihood that your audience will open your newsletter and actually read it!

Ready to start?


Newsletters are an efficient and fun way to share professional or personal news. Keep employees, students, families, club members, and stakeholders up to date with a digital newsletter hosted on Calaméo. With partss one and two of this series, you should have all the tips you need to create and share an excellent newsletter. Are you ready to start? Try our free 2-week PLATINUM demo and take advantage of all the features Calaméo has to offer!

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How to optimize your publications for social media posts

In MARKETING
18 January 2018

Social networks are a simple, efficient channel for letting readers know about your digital publications. But not all shares are equally effective. For example, garbled text and broken links will attract fewer clicks than well-prepared content. To optimize your publications for best results in social media posts, you can take a few easy steps in just five minutes.

In this article, we’ll be highlighting quick fixes that give your publications a professional look for sharing on Facebook, Twitter and more.

Add a clear title

When you share a link to your Calaméo publication on social media, its title has a big place in the post. In fact, the title usually appears in a bigger and/or bold font. As a result, you should be sure to choose a clear, concise title for your publication. Even better, include keywords to interest your audience. Avoid including information like the file size and type that may distract or confuse readers.

 Get descriptive

A short description is a great opportunity to introduce your publication to potential readers scrolling through their social media feeds. Since the description text appears in the link preview, make it count. We recommend that you give an overview of your publication’s contents, in addition to a strong CTA. And of course, always review your social media post to double-check the formatting—making changes to the description on Calaméo is painless.

Showcase bold covers

Your publication’s cover image will be shown in the link preview on social media, so it should stand out! First, make sure your publication has a dedicated cover page. Next, consider the design. To catch the eye of curious readers, you may prefer a bold, colorful cover instead of a white background and small type. Check out the example below:

Check privacy settings

In order to share your publications on social media, you first need to verify that they are accessible to the right audience. You can share a private publication that has been authorized for access with a private URL. Or you may also configure a private publication for subscriber access. Your subscribers will then be directed to log in with the unique username and password that you have defined for each of them.

Select link options

Once all of your publication’s properties are prepared, it’s time to choose the link that you want to share on social media. You can either link to the overview page of your publication on Calaméo or directly to the viewer. Want to highlight a particular section in your post? Just add ?page= followed by a page number to the publication URL. Your link will bring readers straight to that page.

💡TIP: If you’re sharing a publication on Facebook, try using the Sharing Debugger to confirm that the title, description and cover display properly before you hit post.

Include hashtags

Tags and hashtags are a smart tool to help more people discover your publications on social media. A little research will tell you which hashtags related to your business or activity are most popular. But don’t be afraid of less-used, quirkier hashtags either—they can add personality to your posts. Tagging other accounts or pages should only be used when relevant, such as tagging a business featured in an article of your publication.

With these quick and easy tips you should be ready to optimize your digital publications for social media posts. And if you want even more ideas to develop your sharing strategy, head on over to our Digital Publisher’s Guide to Social Media.

We love to see the amazing content our users publish on Calaméo! Tag us @calameo on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Or show off your best covers with the #CalameoCoversClub hashtag for a chance to be featured on our homepage.

MARKETING

Using digital publishing in your sales and marketing strategies

In MARKETING
14 October 2021

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!