The printed magazine is a treasured and important benefit when you become a member of an organisation; not only does it keep you up to date on a key area of your interest, but it also makes you feel valued by the organisation you are a member of.

But there are times when a printed publication isn’t possible, as the COVID-19 outbreak has shown us, anything that needs to come off a print press and go through the mail system – both sectors that are being affected by the outbreak – is vulnerable – whereas digital channels are not only significantly cheaper and eco-friendly, but they also present a direct and instant communication channel to your members when print magazines do not.

But choosing the best option for your digital comms can be confusing, especially in scenarios where the new channel will be replacing your physical magazine.

So based on our experience, not only with membership organisations but also household brands around the world, we have put together some options and things to consider for each one.

Website

Well, you’ve probably got one of these already! But consider having a separate ‘news and thought leadership’ site to replace your magazine. This could be much smaller in scope to your existing site and have a boutique, curated experience that would make it more attractive to members than them having to search for content on the ‘blog’ section on your main website.

Web publication

If you want to retain that periodical routine of a printed magazine and still offer an accessible and attractive reading experience – but do all of that online – then you should consider a web publication platform like Foleon. We have used this extensively with our clients and we find it creates a natural bridge between the online reading experience and a physical magazine and removes the need for those PDF page turners that everyone uses. Check out some examples here.

PDF page turner

See above – don’t bother with these unless it is for archive purposes (i.e. you still have your printed mag and want the online PDF as a record), but it cannot be used as your primary delivery mechanism.

Video

Why not replace words completely and move to video? We don’t need to tell you that video is the preferred method for users to consume content now, so consider interviewing your key people for big features or get your members to submit content to you themselves. There is a very low price barrier to video nowadays, and it’s much easier to get decent results with fairly basic kit – so don’t be put off!

An online community via social media or an app

A magazine is, generally, a one way broadcast of information, but if you want to take the next step in engaging your members and providing them with a method to get more involved with their fellow members, you can do this for free by creating a closed group of Facebook. Or if you want something completey bespoke to your organisation, you can get cost-effective, off-the-shelf apps that you can ‘brand-up’ with your own logo, fonts, and colours to create something that members will see as a real value-add to their membership.

These are the methods we recommend, but there are many others, and if you are facing a digital future or need to put something in place quickly because of COVID-19, email us and we can advise you further.