Customer Magazines and Digital Marketing

“Print is dead!” – We’ve all heard it, yet print remains a powerful tool in content marketing. Customer magazines captivate audiences with their tangible appeal, cutting through the digital noise. When paired with advertising campaigns, they enhance brand recall and create lasting impressions.

Strategically designed magazines can also drive lead-generation by integrating QR codes, personalized URLs, and landing pages to track engagement and collect valuable data. This blend of print and digital ensures customer magazines remain effective, combining emotional resonance with measurable results in modern marketing strategies.

Table of contents

1. Why Customer Magazines Still Matter in the Digital Age
2. Customer magazines and digital marketing strategy
3. Extending customer magazines digitally
4. Proving Effectiveness and ROI
5. Strategies to Improve Efficiency of Digital Customer Magazines
6. Examples of Businesses Improving Digital Customer Magazine Efficiency
7. Our services

Why Customer Magazines Still Matter in the Digital Age

A customer magazine is a branded print publication designed to engage readers, build loyalty, and communicate a company’s values, products, and services through informative and entertaining content.

A digital customer magazine is an online version of a customer magazine that uses multimedia elements, interactivity, and analytics to enhance engagement, track reader behavior, and integrate with broader digital marketing strategies.

Creating a customer magazine takes a lot of effort. And as we all know, effort and costs go hand in hand. Compared to online media, the success of print communication is not easily measured. Since magazines are usually free and analogue, neither sales nor traffic can be used to gain insights on the magazine's effectiveness.

Nevertheless, sectors such as the energy and health industries value customer magazines as a valuable tool. They have plenty of reasons to do so:

1. Image: A carefully designed print magazine on good paper leaves a more lasting impression than a website usually does. Moreover, the magazine is completely in control of the business publishing it, which gives it ample room to strengthen brand awareness. A good balance of information and entertainment engages people intellectually and emotionally.

2. Look and feel: One of the reasons why print is still alive is that it offers a different sensory experience than texts displayed on a screen. Depending on the type of paper used, the feel is totally different. So is the smell (ink or perfume). It also requires different movements (turning of pages). Moreover, a magazine has a stronger presence in the lives of people. It is a physical object and as such readers may return to reading it more often than to a social media post.

3. Efficiency: Articles with journalistic quality appear more authentic. Readers also spend more time with print products than with individual web sites. It all comes down to a simple question: Which online ad enjoys 20 minutes attention?

4. Customer loyalty: Customers usually find the magazines directly in their mail boxes. The magazine regularly presents updates on the business and its services, but also provides information that goes beyond the promotion of new offers. Take a health insurance company as an example: the customer magazine could include recipes for healthy dishes as well as workout tips. Customers will appreciate the added value offered by the print magazine.

5. Content is king: The customer magazine should not be viewed as an adverting tool. Its purpose is to give customers and business partners information they will appreciate. At the same time, the magazine can be used to make customers curious about new developments. When browsing through the pages of the magazine, they might find topics of interest they have not yet been aware of. Look at it this way: they are not being advertised to, but they discover new products through the magazine.

6. Increase revenue: The customer magazine is a great tool for image and customer retention. It can also drive revenue as it offers plenty of space to place products and service within an information-driven context. The value of products can be illustrated with concrete application examples.

Customer magazines and digital marketing strategy

Many companies have recognized the shift in media consumption from print to digital. This does not necessarily have to be bad for print magazines. Digital media can increase the effectiveness of customer magazines by extending them digitally.

However, this does not mean that publishing a PDF file of the customer magazine is a sound digital strategy. Rather, marketers should try to bridge the gap between digital and analogue. There are many different ways in which this can be done. The goal is to generate marketing qualified leads and to be able to measure the effectiveness of the magazine.

Learn more fact on corporate publishing in our infographic:

Extending customer magazines digitally

The main issue with customer magazines is that they usually do not generate data. That is why businesses have to come up with ways to link their magazines to digital media.

There are many ways in which this can be done:

1. Dialogue

Customers always value businesses that want to hear their opinions. A customer magazine does not have to be a one way street. Businesses can use the magazine to ask customers about their opinions on various issues. The readers could reply to these questions on social media using given hashtags or via email.

Another possibility are online forums created by the company. The business could encourage readers to join the online forum to further discuss the content of the magazine, e.g. application examples given in the magazine or to ask the business questions that were not sufficiently addressed in the print product.

2. Multi-media content

Let us return to the health insurance customer magazine example for a brief moment: the magazine includes workout tips to stay in shape. Even though the workout can be described in detail and feature photographs, the readers could also be asked to scan a QR code to be redirected to the business's YouTube channel where they find a video of the workout.

3. Information

You discuss an application in the customer magazine. Maybe you have produced a white paper in the past tackling a similar issue. Why not give your readers a link to the white paper. If they want to access the white paper, however, they have to fill out a registration form. This way you gain additional insights about your customers while enhancing the value of your customer magazine.

4. Distribution

It not only works from analogue to digital, it can also be the other way around. Encourage online users to subscribe to your magazine by promoting it on social media and your website. Create a landing page with a registration form and generate new leads!

Customer magazines can still be valuable marketing instruments as long as they are part of an integrated marketing strategy. Paramount the the effectiveness of this endeavor is tracking actions triggered by the magazine. This requires marketing automation software that keeps track of every communication channel you use and stores the generated data centrally. By bridging the gap from analogue to digital, the software will also be able to track the traffic generated by your magazine.

5. The benefits at a glance:

• Generate valuable customer data.
• Create a seamless customer experience.
• Offer customers a rich communication.
• Track the success of the magazine.

Proving Effectiveness and ROI

For many businesses, the biggest challenge with customer magazines is quantifying their impact. Unlike digital media, where metrics like clicks, impressions, and conversions are readily available, the success of print magazines can be difficult to measure. This creates skepticism about their value in a marketing strategy, especially when budgets are tight, and every marketing dollar needs to demonstrate a clear return.

Key pain points include:

• Lack of measurable data: Without direct tracking, it's hard to gauge engagement or link the magazine to revenue.
• High production costs: Printing and distribution are expensive, and without visible ROI, they can feel like a risky investment.
• Digital competition: As digital marketing grows, businesses often deprioritize print, fearing it might not justify the effort in a data-driven era.

Addressing this pain requires integrating tracking mechanisms, blending print with digital strategies, and educating stakeholders on the unique, often intangible benefits that customer magazines provide.

Strategies to Improve Efficiency of Digital Customer Magazines

Digital customer magazines can be a powerful marketing tool, but their success depends on smart strategies that ensure maximum engagement and efficiency. Here are practical ways to enhance the effectiveness of your digital customer magazine:

1. Interactive Features

   • Add multimedia elements like videos, clickable infographics, or animations to bring content to life.
   • Use interactive forms for surveys or feedback directly within the magazine to encourage reader engagement.

2. Personalization

   • Tailor content to your audience by segmenting subscribers and delivering articles relevant to their interests.
   • Incorporate AI-powered recommendations to suggest content based on previous interactions.

3. SEO Optimization

   • Use SEO best practices for the digital version to ensure it’s discoverable on search engines.
   • Include keywords, meta descriptions, and optimized alt-text for images.

4. Mobile Responsiveness

   • Ensure the magazine is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate on all devices.
   • Use adaptive layouts and high-quality visuals that load quickly.

5. Data-Driven Insights

   • Use analytics tools to track readership, time spent on articles, click-through rates, and conversions.
   • Use this data to refine future editions and focus on the most engaging content.

6. Social Media Integration

   • Promote the digital magazine on social platforms with teasers or highlights.
   • Encourage readers to share their favorite articles, amplifying reach.

7. Email Marketing

   • Send the magazine via email to your subscriber list, using personalized subject lines to increase open rates.
   • Add dynamic elements like "What’s Inside" sections to entice readers to explore.

8. Monetization Opportunities

   • Offer space for sponsors or advertisers whose audience aligns with your magazine’s readership.
   • Use affiliate marketing to link products directly within the magazine.

By combining innovative features, personalized content, and data analytics, businesses can ensure their digital customer magazines not only captivate readers but also deliver measurable results.

Examples of Businesses Improving Digital Customer Magazine Efficiency

There are some examples that demonstrate how digital magazines can effectively connect with audiences while reinforcing brand values and achieving marketing goals.

Our services

Are you thinking about publishing your own customer magazine or are you looking for ways to integrate the magazine in your overall marketing strategy? 

In today’s digital-first world, print customer magazines offer a unique, tangible connection with your audience. Our team specializes in crafting high-quality, engaging magazines that captivate readers and build lasting loyalty. From concept and design to content creation and distribution, we handle every detail to showcase your brand’s story, products, and values. We emphasize journalistic quality, balancing information and entertainment to position your magazine as a trusted resource. Whether you’re in energy, healthcare, or beyond, let us help you create a magazine that enhances your image, strengthens relationships, and drives results. Let’s make your print presence unforgettable!