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Content marketing is all about grabbing the audience with compelling, well-packaged content, and then drawing people in to learn more. The problem is that we’re all competing with lots of other sources for that precious slice of the reader’s attention span. How do you stand out from the crowd? One industry has been dealing with these problems for decades: consumer magazine publishers. The people who produce Redbook, Cosmo, Woman’s Day, People and other newsstand staples are experts at enticing people in supermarket checkout lines to buy copies and become subscribers. The tricks they use to grab and keep attention are every bit as relevant online as they are in print – even for B2B companies. Paul Gillin dissects a copy of Redbook magazine and reveals the subtle techniques publishers use to turn passers-by into buyers.
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Paul Gillin
@pgillin
paul@gillin.com
7 Online Publishing Tricks You Can Learn From Redbook
The Magnificent Seven
1. It’s All About You
2. Baser Instincts
3. Who Do You Want to Be?
4. Points of Entry
5. Elements of Surprise
6. How Can I Help?
7. Tell Stories
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Who’s Your Reader?
Motivations Fears Passions Goals Self-Image Needs Desires
We don’t mean demographics. We mean:
You can’t communicate effectively with an audience you don’t know. Visualize your reader.
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Stuff You’ve Gotta Know
The overriding message is that if you don’t read this magazine, you’ll be unhappy, ugly and lousy in bed.
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Beautiful People
The images in Redbook illustrate the people their readers want to be, not who they are.
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Always Feeling Good
Redbook’s iconic people are happy even when they’re in pain
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4. MANY POINTS OF ENTRY
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Visual Points of Entry
Even mundane stock photos can be used to grab the browser’s attention. Keep them relevant, though.
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Textual Points of Entry
When you don’t have images to work with, text can be used to add visual variety and catch the eye.
With at least eight different fonts and sizes on this page, the risk is looking chaotic, but the style fits with Redbook’s energetic design
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5. ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
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Big images are attention-grabbers. Zoom in!
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6. HOW CAN I HELP?
About half of Redbook’s content is advisory. The magazine is constantly asking its readers…
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Points of entry
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Q&A interviews are one of the most effective ways to organize and compartmentalize information.
Asked and Answered
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List ManiaAs formulaic as “top 10” lists and self-tests have become, they work.
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7. TELL STORIES
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Who’s the “our” and “we” in this article? Doesn’t matter. First-person accounts speak in human terms.
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Use First Person
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Thank you!
Paul Gillin
508-656-0734
paul@gillin.com
Site: gillin.com
Blog: paulgillin.com
Twitter: pgillin
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