Newsletters and magazines – digital or print?
You’ve got some great content, regular news and products to share with your customers or staff. You’ve got an email newsletter – but you’re thinking about levelling up to a professional newsletter design. Should you print it, or keep it digital? If you don’t want to print it, what some ways to share it?
What does a well designed newsletter or magazine do?
- delivers a variety of content related to your business
- builds your brand/business credibility through your content/stories
- a place to share in depth case studies
- a place to share positive reviews
- a opportunity for engagement – invite readers to contribute
- start conversations with your customers
- can build a stronger relationship with your customer or audience
Ultimately a business or brand publication can bring together your content, blogs, success stories and brand imagery to tell more of your brand story.
Youth Buzz magazine – a magazine-style quarterly newsletter – to promote the organisation and it’s events, lifestyle stories about members, recipes and tips for parents of T1 diabetic kids. Featuring bright engaging graphics, lots of photos and valuable information, these magazines have a long shelf-life.
How can I share a well designed newsletter or magazine?
Print and distribute hard copies, or release as a digital publication.
Design and Print
Print is not dead! There’s nothing like flipping through a freshly printed magazine – the paper, the photography, beautiful design. It’s lovely to open an envelope and see some carefully curated news from a favourite brand.
Things to consider:
- Size: what paper size will you use and how many pages?
- Paper stock: standard or premium?
- Size of print run: how many do you need to print to reach your customers/database?
- Distribution: will you use a mail house, have it in-store for customers to pick-up, or send out with invoices or products?
- Frequency: how often can you pull content together? Monthly, quarterly, or annually?
- Content: who will write it? How many contributors do you need?
- Imagery: commissioned or stock photography?
- Design: Factor in time and budget for your designer.
- Investment: How do these considerations covert into costs? Is this viable for your business?
- Risk: How long will your publication be current? What will make it appealing to readers? What would make readers keep it after reading?
A paying membership can allow for a printed publication. This bi-monthly magazine was something members looked forward to and could actively contribute to. A printed publication can be a tangilbe reason for people to sign up or subcribe.
Digital
The good news is that anything you design and print, can become (almost) instantly digital. Or if you’re skipping the printing – you can head straight to these options which are more budget friendly, and quick to distribute.
Issu
Take your magazine or professional newsletter design and distribute it everywhere! Issu takes a PDF and transforms it into an interactive experience on desktop or mobile, along with all social platforms. This lets you reach your audience and beyond in record time.
> Embed your Issu publication on your website and social channels.
Interactive PDF
A simple way to make a professional newsletter design work harder is to make it an interactive PDF. Adding hyperlinks, navigation, buttons or video gives your reader a more enhanced experience.
> Upload your interactive pdf to your website and promote via email and social channels.
Here’s a great example of Keystone Trust embedding their Careers Magazine on their website. We’ve got a quality mockup image next to the embedded magazine. Visitors to the site can click to download a pdf to print or refer back to offline, or browse the magazine right there on the page.
Need some inspiration? Check out my pinterest board for some great design ideas.
Are you thinking about creating a brand or business publication? Want to talk through the design process? Get in touch – I’d love to hear about your plans.
