Hammock has a lot of experience with redesign, and our re-imaginings of publications have not only garnered numerous awards, but they’ve also helped our clients recruit and retain members and connect with their readers’ passions. Still, it was cool to have our philosophy on redesign underscored by Kelly McMurray, creative director of the design firm 2communique, at a recent Folio: Show 2008 session in Chicago.
Addressing both editors and designers, she offered these tips for anyone contemplating a redesign:
1. Define why you need to redesign. Is your circulation or readership falling off? Are you taking a new direction editorially? Is the publication too expensive production-wise? Is it not aligned with your reader mission? (If you don’t conduct post-publication reviews of your issues, now is the time to start.)
2. Get everyone’s buy-in. The redesign process needs to be collaborative. That means editors and designers need to figure out ways to speak each other’s language.
3. Complete market research. The more knowledge you have about your readership, the more the redesign will reflect it and align with your readers’ needs.
4. Determine the scope of the redesign. Are you just making minor changes or doing a complete overhaul? Does your team have the right resources and abilities? Can you complete a redesign while keeping up with regular issue demands? Are you too close to step back and be objective, or do you need an outside opinion?
5. Set a reasonable schedule. Commit fully to a launch date, but build in enough time that you resist the temptation to rush through the process.
6. Kickoff the process. Get people away from their desks to discuss elements of the redesign. Be open to inspiration from other magazines: Collect examples of what you do and don’t like.
7. Start tearing down and building back up. Spend lots of time researching typography, color palette, fonts, grid system, navigational systems and style guide. Editors: This is the time to step back and let designers show their talents.
8. Launch the issue. Don’t show your redesign in a piecemeal fashion; get it all out there at once. Build a strong, workable structure, but also make it flexible enough for editors and other designers to take ownership and customize it for future needs.
We were delighted to have two websites we created receive “Standard of Excellence” recognition in this year’s WebAward competition. The Hammock.com site and the NFIB National Small Business Summit site both received this honor, announced last week by the Web Marketing Association, the WebAward sponsor.
The Web Marketing Association is a long-term player in recognizing excellence online — this year’s competition was the 12th annual. Sites are judged against other sites in their industry, on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation and use of technology.
We’re proud of the honor!
It’s almost cute to hear a little girl dressed up like a princess say things like “I is a big girl.”
But when an international car company runs a national commercial with a terrible example of subject-verb agreement — “Its popularity in the hearts and minds of millions have solidified its reputation for quality and high MPG.” — it’s not so cute.
I won’t mention them by name, but “oh what a feeling” of pain I endured when my ears first heard that. I had to rewind a couple of times to make sure I heard correctly.
I loved this clever headline in Sunday’s The New York Times— “Too Beautiful for Pixels”—about the biannual art book The Last Magazine. Formatted like a newspaper, its tag line is: All things new—at last. Magnus Berger and Tenzin Wild, co-founders of the magazine, said that colleagues advised them to publish it online. The co-founders decided against the advice, however, and opted for a print-only publication because ”with print you can make something really beautiful.”
I respect their decision, trusting that they know what is best for their content, audience and budget, but I disagree with the implication that you can’t create something “really beautiful” with a digital publication. The decision to choose a print, digital or a combination for distribution of your content should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Readers interact with digital publications differently than print publications, and so those behaviors must be weighed when determining what is right for your audience. Print publications can certainly be beautiful, but don’t discriminate against digital ones—they can be beautiful too.
We work with clients to plan content months ahead of time. It’s not uncommon to write a story on the history of Christmas cookies in June or interview entrepreneurs with summertime businesses in February. This early and detailed planning is just one essential piece of the publication puzzle.
Whole Foods’ new website is a great example of how a company can take the passion its customers have for its products and services and create an online destination for this community to live, grow and thrive. The site connects Whole Foods fans from across the country, demonstrating that the company understands the power of community for their brand. Here are four tips that an association can learn from Whole Foods about how to create and manage a successful community online:
If your association doesn’t yet have a blog, start one now. You can set up an executive director-only blog, or you can create an organization-wide blog that allows different employees to contribute posts. Although it might be intimidating at first to accept comments, this function will create more transparency for your blog and will encourage member participation.
One of the first steps to building such a dynamic community online is for your association to have quality content on your site. The content needs to provide information and resources that offers a real value to your members, and it needs to be updated often. We also recommend using different media, including video, photos and podcasts, to share your content. By offering a range of forms, you tell your story more effectively and appeal to different audiences.
If your association has state or regional chapters of groups, consider creating a section of your site for each of these communities. Following this strategy will allow local groups of members to gather and grow.
If your association is just beginning to explore social networking tools, it’s ok to start gradually. At first, try Facebook and LinkedIn. Once you feel comfortable with those two tools, you can expand the range of your social media to best accomplish the goals for your association community.
I just submitted a story for one of Hammock’s teen-oriented magazines on surviving in the wilderness. While I’m steadily gaining more experience in hiking and camping, this article drawing on my modicum of expertise wasn’t exactly turned in on time. One reason? I spent far too long doing research on Backpacker magazine’s website.
The site immediately pulls you in with a fun online survival center that includes a library of how-to videos. Want to learn how to fend off a bear attack? How about stop a gushing wound? The Survival 101 section has the answers to common lifesaving questions, as magazine editors blend video and advice from experts to supplement their print content. The site acts as a true service to the magazine’s loyal readers, including this fan who will use the tips to impress my backpacking companions on our next trek. (Yes, I fully intend to dazzle all with my ability to build a fire with one match.)
One of the reasons we sometimes hear association and corporate marketers use for hesitancy in incorporating Facebook into their communication strategies is their perception that it is comprised primarily of college-age students. That’s correct, however, the trend is clearly in another direction.
According to this analysis of current (September, 2008) users of the social networking service from O’Reilly Media, “With the U.S. now accounting for only about a third of all Facebook users, we are starting to see a gradual shift away from its original demographic of college-age users (18-25): 46% of all users are 18-25 years old, down from 51% in late May. The number of users in the 18-25 segment is growing, but at a slower pace than the other age groups.”
More significantly, Facebook is seeing its fastest growth among teens (13-17) and middle-age professionals between the ages of 35 and 44. Also showing strong growth, but at a smaller rate are the age groups 45-54 and 55-59.
Should be interesting numbers to track.
I recently read about an interesting experiment: For the next three months the magazine Good is allowing readers to name their own subscription price. Good is not the first to experiment with the idea. For one month in late 2007, Paste allowed readers to name their subscription price, a program that resulted in 28,000 new paid subscribers. For a consumer magazine like Paste that carries advertising, a circulation increase of 28,000 should translate to a nice chunk of new advertising revenue.
Over the last few years as auditing agencies have enforced stricter requirements on publishers regarding circulation, some publishers have been forced to reduce their rate bases to pass their audits. Some magazines then find themselves unable to sell as big of an audience to advertisers, so they must find new ways to boost circulation. This partially explains why an annual subscription to a magazine can sometimes cost less than a single copy of an issue on newsstands. (Mr. Magazine Samir Husni shares his take on single copy vs. subscription sales on his blog.)
Before you consider instituting this kind of program with your magazine, consider: What are the risks of allowing new readers to tell you what your magazine is worth to them? Will these readers be more or less engaged with your magazine? Will readers who pay the average $20 subscription price feel more vested in the magazine than those who pay $1, or will you end up losing money on them? Each publication’s situation, content, readership and financial realities are unique, but for some magazines, letting their readers rate their worth could be an experiment that could help give those publications the circulation bump they sorely need.
I’ve posted a number of times this year about how, in an effort to engage readers and meet the needs of advertisers, some magazines are using incentives to drive their readers to action—specifically to text. As a reward for this behavior, readers receive special offers, the chance to enter sweepstakes or advance notice on hot products.
In a new twist on this concept, SmartMoney’s Sept. 16 issue will drive readers to text, but with a different motivation. Instead of tempting readers with the lure of special samples or deals, the magazine will send readers premium content in exchange for their texts. Within its pullout section on retirement, SmartMoney will include a call-out box with a texting code and the phrase “retire.” Once readers send in their text messages, they will receive a PDF article about retirement.
Obviously this advertising package is appealing to its sponsor, Genworth Financial, because the concept integrates different media and is measurable. And it allows Genworth to position themselves as a go-to resource for SmartMoney readers when it comes to retirement. While I admit the integration of media is cool, the element of this program that I find most intriguing is the promised content. Will readers send in texts? Yes, if they think the content will be valuable, but readers are savvy: They won’t respond to the call to action if it looks or sounds like advertising.
We at Hammock consider ourselves reader advocates, so we’re always cognizant of reader behavior in the media we create. If an advertiser, association or organization creates content for their audience that is compelling rather than self-serving, and if it’s written, designed and distributed with their target audience’s needs in mind, it’s much more likely to be effective, engaging and deliver ROI.