The folks at eMarketer always cover the topics of interest for digital marketers.
Recently, an article discussed the way people are consuming magazine content digitally.
From Tablet Magazine Experience Falls Short:
Digital magazines on devices such as tablets have a few shortcomings. Tablet magazine readers express dissatisfaction with factors related to formatting, advertising and commerce. The GfK MRI survey found that 72% would prefer all digital magazines be formatted the same way. In terms of digital magazine advertisements, 70% would like to be able to buy items by clicking on the ads, and 70% would like electronic ads that are personalized to their interests.
Now, I don’t think this applies to only magazine readers. Bloggers need to pay attention as well because the same target audiences that read magazine content also read blog content.
And as the study shows above, these folks are looking for more.
Deliver More Value for Blog Readers
I don’t think it’s just digital magazines that are lacking in quality. I actually think magazines are doing a pretty good job with improving the experience. I think the publications are catching up to the expectations of subscribers.
But there is room to improve as always and the same holds true for bloggers as well.
Audiences expect more these days from all digital content providers.
This eMarketer ad discusses a study where consumers are dissatisfied with the interactivity of digital magazine ads. Blogs that have ads are likely suffering from the same lack of interactivity and personalization. This can be handled well by working with ad partners that are working to improve all aspects of ads. There have been some great improvements over the last few years and even months with retargeting and acquisition ads.
Some people think personalized creep on privacy, but the goal is to provide something the consumer wants to see instead of something random. Ad companies are really getting good with their targeting so if your blog has ads be sure to work with a quality partner to ensure the ads are relevant to your readers.
Additional Content Forms
I’ve been seeing more successful bloggers incorporating other forms of content in their blogging.
Some popular blogs are using slides to enhance the content in each post. These bloggers are adding visuals in the form of a slide deck and really giving their audiences something extra to consume.
Video and audio have also been something that can add interest and personalization to a regular text blog post. Some of the best blogs on the Web will include podcasts or videos as part of their regular blogging. These blogs still usually include text, but the images, videos, and audio add a bit more to regular blog posts.
Magazine readers are moving toward digital as the main way to consume content. These are the same people that are reading your blog posts and they are starting to expect more from their content providers.
Additional content beyond text will be required to satisfy these customers.
To earn their attention you have to implement something additional like video, interactive material, images, photos, audio, etc. to earn their attention and their business.