By Robyn Yao, Digital Marketing Specialist

In today’s digital age, many companies are focusing on online marketing tactics to increase brand awareness and reach their target audience. However, there is still something special about holding a physical magazine in your hands and flipping through the glossy pages. That’s where custom magazines come in! So today, we’re exploring the benefits of custom magazines and how they can help your brand stand out from the crowd.

The Power of Print
No matter what you’ve heard, print is not dead. In fact, there has been a resurgence in print media in recent years because it holds many opportunities for brands and marketers that don’t rely on algorithms or “going viral” to get their message across.

For example, one unique benefit of print media is credibility. Studies show that consumers are more likely to trust an advertisement they see in print marketing versus something they see online. This is because they can physically hold the print advertisement, or in this case, custom magazine, adding a sense of realness, authenticity, and credibility to the marketing material they’re engaging with.

Furthermore, print media has a type of longevity that’s just not seen with online marketing tactics. In other words, a custom magazine will long outlast a social media campaign that only runs for a limited time.

By integrating print media into your marketing strategy, you can not only take advantage of this inherent credibility and longevity but also more easily reach your niche target audience. There’s a reason that people want to be in publications like Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, or Entrepreneur magazine. It’s because print media increases your brand’s public perception and authority. With your own custom magazine, you’ll find it easier to stand out in a crowded digital landscape and concisely convey your message to prospective customers.

Customization and Personalization
Building on this point, a significant benefit of creating your own custom magazine is that it allows you to tailor your message to your target audience. Your service or offering is most likely not for everyone; rather, there is a specific group of people that are your ideal audience. With a custom magazine as part of your marketing strategy, you can personalize your messaging to resonate with these people in an effort to reach your goals (i.e., increase your brand awareness, assist with client acquisition, generate revenue, etc.).

For example, let’s briefly look at Metalfab Fire Trucks and how they’ve used their custom newsletter to benefit their brand. If you open any edition of their newsletter, you’ll most likely find things like fire department spotlights, the latest fire truck, must-have fire truck features, and more. In other words, content that fire chiefs find valuable and would want to read. By customizing their messaging in this newsletter, Metalfab can stay top-of-mind and position themselves as an authority within their industry.

Likewise, you’ll want to achieve something similar with your custom magazine. You may ask yourself: Who is my ideal reader? What information would my audience benefit from? What service or offering am I trying to promote? and What’s my overall goal with this custom magazine? You might also consider working with a test audience to get feedback to help hone your messaging over time.

Cost-Effective Marketing
One thing that no one really talks about is just how cost-effective print media is as a marketing medium. But why is it such a cost-effective way to reach your target audience? Well, as we mentioned above, custom magazines have a long shelf life and a high pass-along rate. This means that weeks, months, and even years after publication, they can still be circulating and reaching new audiences.

Think about it this way—whenever you’re in the waiting room at the dentist, chiropractic clinic, or any professional office in general, there are likely a few magazines kicking around. If only two people read one of those magazines each day, that’s over 700 readers a year. Now, imagine how many people your custom magazine could reach in a scenario like this. The answer is hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Plus, your cost is just the initial investment of creating the magazine, whereas, with something like a pay-per-click campaign, you’re being charged for each viewer that opens your ad.

We want to clarify that we are not saying you should solely replace your online marketing strategy with a custom magazine. However, utilizing print media is a cost-effective way to help maximize your advertising efforts and bring you benefits that online marketing tactics simply cannot provide, such as longevity of the medium and recurring readership over time.

Expert Design and Production
At this point, you’re probably wondering what the first steps are to create your own custom magazine. Or maybe you’re considering just DIY’ing your own magazine from scratch. As a company specializing in this area, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of working with a professional design and production team for custom magazines.

When you work with a custom magazine publisher, you not only gain access to their expertise but also avoid any potential pitfalls within the production process (and there are many!). Several clients came to us after attempting to create their own magazine, lamenting the hidden logistics involved and stating they just wanted a team to help streamline the process, which is precisely why we’re here.

Take our Client-Partner Nesbit Agencies, for example. They came to us needing help implementing marketing tasks they just didn’t have time for, with the goal of increasing inbound leads. One thing we did (among several strategies) was to create a quarterly magazine publication to be distributed to all their current clients as well as prospective ones. Although some may consider topics in the insurance industry a bit “dry,” our designers worked closely with our copywriters to create engaging pieces that would motivate people to read the next line, the next page, and the next issue. As a result, Nesbit has successfully targeted new markets in the commercial industry while increasing their organic traffic by 13.11% and beating out their competitors, thanks to print media.

Final Thoughts
Custom magazines are a powerful marketing tool that can help your brand stand out in today’s digital landscape. By creating a custom magazine tailored to your target audience, you can connect with them in a unique and impactful way through messaging that resonates. Ultimately, when you couple this with expert design and production, your custom magazine can become an extremely cost-effective way to reach new prospective customers and make a lasting impression.

Contact Tulip Media Group today to learn more about how we can help you create a custom magazine that sets your brand apart.