The content of this presentation is designed to promote print media’s power to communicate. You are welcome to use this as part of your own materials but please credit Print Power Reasons to Use Customer Magazines

The medium of customer magazines has blossomed into a huge global industry. Central to this success is the level of customer engagement it offers brands. A cornerstone of the growing content-marketing industry, customer magazines deliver high-quality, relevant and valuable information. This type of owned media has in some markets, actually a higher circulation than consumer magazines. In Germany the share of customer magazines distributed door-to-door has increased over the last years to almost 19% of all door drops (WVO, 2013). Their ability to create a bond with their readers is a vital tool to building brands and creating loyalty. So here are the seven key reasons for using customer magazines…. 7 Reasons to Use Customer Magazines

1. Building relationship and loyalty The most common reason for commissioning a customer magazine is to foster loyalty. Customer magazines also have the ability to build a strong commitment that can result in stronger sales or even turn your customers into brand ambassadors. A study confirmed that regular readers of supermarket and clothing shops magazines had respectively a 13% (per week) and 17% (per month) higher spend (CMA 2012).

7 Reasons to Use Customer Magazines 2. Substance and tangibility The tangible feeling of holding a magazine in your hands is something consumers still love, the majority of consumers still prefer paper to other media. Brands understand that this "mode of delivery" is an important element in creating uniqueness and value for the customer magazine. The medium of customer magazines also comes with the vital element of practicality: all titles allow reading in the ‘Three Bs’ (Bathroom, Beach and Bus).

7 Reasons to Use Customer Magazines 3. Trust Using entertaining and informative content, customer magazines build a bond of trust between brand and reader resulting in more trust than all forms of 'paid media' (Nielsen, Global Trust in Advertising 2011). Readers have no feeling of being sold to. The content comes from a single brand, and is presented in a soft-sell, non-invasive way, creating affinity and building a rapport with the reader. Targeting power Customer magazines have the ability to target various consumers, tailoring content specifically for their interests and habits, offering more personalised content and increasing engagement. Various sectors, like supermarkets, banks, hairdressers, courier services, malls, real-estate, car brands, design brands and even e-commerce companies use customer magazines. 4.

7 Reasons to Use Customer Magazines 5. Effectiveness Customer magazines are an 'owned medium' a channel that can be completely controlled by a brand. The medium is appreciated by readers, with the magazine’s value shown to have a positive effect on the value of the brand. Its effectiveness can be measured by the number of readers that buy products or services that were featured in the magazine. (In the UK 67% of regular readers bought something and 77% used the vouchers). Content marketing With brands now involved in paid media, owned media and earned media, content marketing becomes more important. Customer magazines are the ideal channel to deliver unique content by using a combination of entertainment, information and inspiration. Today about 20% of marcoms budget is allocated to content marketing. 6.

7 Reasons to Use Customer Magazines Print Power Europe Limited iCon Centre | Eastern Way | Daventry | NN11 0QB | United Kingdom | | | 7. Complexity Since customer magazines offer a large amount of editorial space for content, they are able to present more complex This is why an increasing number of customer magazines are being used as an educational tool in the media mix. Design techniques such as infographics are often used to help the reader understand complex subjects.