Gaining User Loyalty with Digital Publishing: Why you need an App

Today, with the veritable clamor of media companies competing for eyes and ears across content distribution channels, the phrase 'reader loyalty' might seem anachronistic. At PixelEdge, we know this isn't the case, and we leverage our digital magazine publishing expertise on a daily basis to help our clients engage valuable, loyal readers. The big debate these days for publishers is whether to adopt a mobile website or a mobile app. If you aren't sure what the distinction between apps and websites, check out this article. The honest answer to this dilemma is that you need both, but with limited resources that's not always an option. So it comes down to defining your goals. And if your goal is to generate an engaged, loyal audience, an app is the way to go. Here's why:

1. Digital Apps are your storefront on readers' mobile devices

How can you know, for sure, that your readers will see your brand each and every day? Well, it starts with having your logo plastered right onto their mobile phone and tablet screens. For digital magazine publishing, having an app is like having your own private corner within your readers' mobile devices. Most people are within six feet of their smartphones at any given time: they access these devices numerous times throughout the day and regularly engage with them to consume content, play games, and generally pass time. What could be more beneficial than having your brand featured, right there on their home screens? Now add in the capability to send them push notifications, deliver new content, connect with their social media accounts, and allow them to download certain content for offline consumption, and you've created an experience that has become a central part of their lives.

2. Digital Apps let you easily optimize content for specific devices

Cost efficiency is important in digital magazine publishing. If a solution is too expensive, time-consuming, or unwieldy, it will be of little benefit to you or your readers. The challenge with having a mobile website (aside from it not being as readily accessible as an app), is that you have to optimize the design of the website for a variety of web-browsers and screen sizes. This, ultimately, means that you will spend time configuring each piece of content so that it looks good on the variety of screens it will be viewed on. With digital magazine apps, you don't have to worry about varying web browsers or screen sizes. Your digital app is already optimized for the devices it will be seen on. And in terms of cost efficiency, our digital publishing solution enables you to seamlessly distribute content at a fraction of what it would cost to have and maintain a mobile website.

Paper versus Digital: Why Most Magazine Apps Don't Cut It

I'm going to let you in on a little secret that seems to have eluded many of today's magazine publishers:

Paper and digital are not the same!

If this seems obvious to you, then you should ask yourself the following question: why are the majority of digital magazine apps simply taking print content and replicating it in digital versions? 

If you don't know what I mean, scroll through the Apple newsstand or download the Next Issue app. The majority of digital magazine apps are simply carbon-copies of publishers' print versions. Now, I don't know about you, but I didn't pay $400 for a new iPad only to have it deliver me the same functionality as a simple piece of paper. It's no wonder digital magazine apps are getting such bad press lately.

You may have seen another post of ours, where we talk about the importance of doing something unique with your branded digital magazine apps. The idea is to craft a universe around your brand by leveraging multiple points of engagement with your readers, each point offering something of unique value.

Here are some unique ways you can leverage your digital magazine app:

- Audio & video content with the ability to cache files for offline access

- Navigable resource guides

- Social media feeds and social sharing capabilities

- Personalized user interfaces and exclusive content targeted to specific reader interests

- Targeted push notifications

- Forums and user-generated content

- Interactive activities and guides

- Fully scrollable articles (ditch the 'digital flipbook')

Publishers need to scrap the "I need an app because everyone else is doing it" mentality. Simply having an app without thinking about the role that it will play within your larger brand structure will more than likely result in disappointment. Moreover, publishers need to get out of the print-production cycle mindset. If you want your brand to stand out, you need to be engaging your readers frequently with high-quality content over a variety of channels. Done the right way, a unique, branded digital magazine app can play an important role in this strategy.