Promote an Online Magazine

How to Promote an Online Magazine

Discover how to promote an online magazine, and find out the resources required to get the results you want.

Online magazines are different from print magazines in a lot of ways, and we’re not just talking about how they’re produced. Digital publishers have unique considerations when it comes to promoting their businesses. Many of the strategies that work for print publications just don’t translate to the digital environment.

Given the incredible amount of work that goes into producing every issue of an online magazine, it’s obvious why publishers would want tools for promotion. Having the right marketing channels in place is the key to making sure that an issue gets discovered and read by a larger audience.

Thankfully, digital publishers have an incredible amount of resources available these days. From social media to other native opportunities, there is virtually no limit to the number of ways a creative publisher can promote an online magazine. Leveraging the original content in each issue, you can grow your audience and bring back lapsed subscribers without allocating significant financial resources.

These are the best strategies we’ve found to promote an online magazine in 2021.

Best Strategies to Promote an Online Magazine

1. Preview each issue.
Give people something to look forward to. When you create an issue preview, you give potential readers a glimpse of what’s in store and you build excitement in the days and weeks before your publication date. New issue previews can be simple landing pages that include links to individual stories or issue highlights. If your monetization strategy involves subscription sales via paywalls, then you may want to allow visitors access to a small number of articles when they click through from your issue preview page.

2. Give email subscribers a sneak peak.
Giving email subscribers a sneak peak works similarly to publishing an issue preview. The main difference, obviously, is that this sneak peak is available only to people who have signed up to receive email newsletters and other email notifications. Given that recipients have already signed up ahead of time, you’ll primarily be connecting with existing readers. With an email sneak peak, you’re encouraging readers to come back for more, whereas with an issue preview landing page you’re more likely to be targeting first-time visitors. A sneak peak email is the perfect place to encourage occasional readers to become actual subscribers, usually with a strong call-to-action (CTA) that describes the benefits of paying for full access.

3. Send out a press release.
Press releases can be as formal or informal as you wish. Larger publishers may even want to look into press release services, which offer mass distribution of press releases to blogs and other smaller media sites. When you’re writing a press release to promote an online magazine, make sure to include contact information for your top editors, and offer to give other publications premium access to your content so they can review the upcoming issue before it hits the web.

4. Utilize social media.
You’ve worked hard to grow your social media following. Now’s the time to take advantage of that. Change out the profile photos and cover photos on each of your publication’s social media accounts to display the cover of your most recent magazine issue. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram are all places where you can distribute content and promote an online magazine. This strategy works best for publishers using the metered paywall model, so visitors can access a certain number of articles for free before being required to sign-up for a paid account.

5. Try out newer media channels.
TikTok and Clubhouse are just the latest in a string of viral social media channels that publishers should be using to promote their online magazines. Obviously, the specific channels or platforms that you use will depend on your publication’s niche. However, creativity is often rewarded when it comes to online promotion. Now is the time to think outside the box and push the boundaries of how you might otherwise try to bring new readers into the fold.

To learn more about the latest strategies for promoting an online magazine, or any other type of digital publication, reach out to Web Publisher PRO.