Converting Digital to Print: Shweiki Media Printing Company Presents a Webinar on How Initially Digital Content Can Be Converted to Ultimately Profitable Print Form
Austin, TX (PRWEB) July 07, 2015 -- Print is one of the most misunderstood and missed opportunities in the digital world. Here Shweiki Media Printing Company teams up with marketing expert, speaker and best-selling author Andrew Davis to present a must-watch webinar on opportunities to leverage print as a healthy piece of one's media marketing mix and on a new way of thinking: The future of digital is print.
The Future Of Digital Is Print
Information overload is a paradox. Just because there is more information available doesn't mean one can consume more. There are 17 new webpages published every second--that's 85 published in just five seconds. Is somebody supposed to consume that?
In 1950 there wasn't a big gap between what one could actually consume and the information one thought was available. The gap started to widen in the 1990s with the cable television revolution. While watching ESPN, one is wondering what's on ESPN2. That is the gap between the information that can actually be consumed and the amount of information that is available. Today, there's the giant gap. There's this huge hockey stick of perceived information available, and there's always one more thing to consume when looking to make a purchase decision.
Marketers are chasing the social stream, chasing the perceived opportunity and trying to get and squeeze into that gap.
Quality Over Quantity
One of the biggest opportunities today is to be part of the information one can actually consume. This is all about creating quality content over quantity. There's a tremendous opportunity to fit print into this. One should think about higher-quality print products as a big piece of the marketing mix. Print can fit into the information that one wants to consume but not contribute to information overload.
One should also consider how to use all of the digital content being created to elevate content to print, how to elevate short-lived digital successes to high-quality print products, and how to extend the digital content lifespan and reap the rewards for four to six weeks. That is a tremendous opportunity that many are missing in the online landscape.
The consumer market has a really good eye for finding these new kinds of trends. Here's an example of one platform and how the digital content is driving print success:
Instagram, in April of 2012, hit the billion photo mark. Spin-offs of Instagram content, meanwhile, have been creating printed products from Instagram photos. Printsagram is a great example with which one can create notecards, mini-books, posters and stickers. People use CanvasPop to print their Instagram photos on canvas. Futuresource believed this business, called Photo Merchandising, would be about a $2 billion business by 2015. Infotrend predicts it to be a $15 billion industry by 2017.
It is not just consumers that are using this; traditional publishers are doing this is as well. During the riots in Baltimore this year, Time Magazine had a great photo on their cover for one of their issues that was actually shot by an amateur Instagram photographer.
One should think about how one platform, like Instagram, is pushing this desire to elevate the best digital content to print.
The Content Continuum
There is no required order for the beginning, middle and end, but it is suggested to begin with digital. One should think about what to print, look at all the digital content created in the online world, and look for areas where there has been some success.
The Last Piece Of The Content Continuum Is Mobile.
How can one think about print products driving the experience through a mobile device and back to a digital experience?
There is another way to think of this is from novelty to utility. It's important to start thinking about using real-world printed products as a gateway to the virtual world.
Augmented reality is using a printed product to create a marker than then puts a digital overlay over the real picture one is seeing. For example, a Mini Cooper ad on the back of a magazine that shows a car when held up to a digital camera. GE did one with a windmill. When you held up the target, a wind scene would pop up. If you blew into the microphone, the windmill would spin. This is novelty.
Another example is Ikea. Ikea created a new take on their catalog. When the cover of their catalog is printed, one can pick a product and actually see the product using the camera on either a phone or iPad in the space in one's house. That is utility.
One should think about leveraging the mobile experience from a print product to reignite that content continuum. This is the perception change that must be made.
Three Smart Ways To Convert Digital Content Into Powerful Print
1. Start Small, Think Big
To be successful this way, one should think about a big project that can be done in print, but experimented with in the online world.
Example: Justin Halpern in August of 2009 was an out-of-work screenwriter and author. He was a writer for Maxim magazine, but he had to move back in with his dad. He then realized his dad was full of quotable material, so he started a twitter handle called @sh*tmydadsays.
Between August 2009 and October 2009, he got up to 100,000 followers on Twitter with just this little piece of punchline. By November of 2009, he had a deal with Warner Bros. People got so excited about the punchline, they wanted to build a story behind it, so he ended up elevating that content to a print book. June of 2010, a year later, he had a New York Times best-seller published by Harper Collins. It was number-one on the list for a few weeks. He ended up with a television show on CBS. His book was elevated from Twitter to TV. There are an infinite number of combinations like this to elevate digital content to print, but one should think big using small successes. If one has something simple that works on Twitter, how can one expand that content's life in a deeper way? Print.
2. Uncover The Stories From Within
Zappos.com was sold to Amazon for $928 million. They have been known for their culture and the customer service they provide in the marketplace. Every year, they take all of their employee's best stories about consumer successes, best events they have done, the insight they have learned, and they turn it into what they call a "Culture Book". It is a 329-page, four-color, hardcover, book. The return on investment for every one of those books that is sent out is about $1.3 million. If you were to email the CEO of Zappos.com and ask him for a 2014 Culture Book, they will send one free of charge. Why? Because they know one will spend more money with Zappos.
What if one mines their internal data, insight, and stories for great content?
3. Leverage Content With The Shortest Half-Life
In 2007, a woman named Rin from Japan started writing a little book every day on her mobile phone and texting 200 characters to her friends about the plot. All of the sudden, millions were following along with these text messages and subscribing to them every morning, and it spawned this mobile phone-book experience. What people wanted was a deeper way to engage with the content, something to keep physically. She ended up with printed books. By 2008, these mobile phone books were eight of the top 10 best-selling books in Japan.
Another great example is the Tumblr site Texts From Dog, for which this guy in London makes up texts as if his dog is texting him during the day while he is at work. This guy posted the texts on Tumblr everyday, and today he has a book, Texts From Dog: The Dog Delusion.
One should take the shortest half-life content from Twitter, Tumblr, their blog and their texts, and uncover valuable content. How can one extend the life of the content they create in a deeper, richer way that could potentially be elevated to print?
The Fact Is The Future Of Digital Is Print
Here are some basic tips...
-Start small, think big. How can you find good pieces of content that actually can be elevated or expanded to print?
-Find those stories from within. Where are the stories collecting lots of data or insight from consumers or customers or clients or even employees? Elevate those to print and send them to customers or potential customers and clients.
-Find the content with the shortest half-life and take that content and turn it into something that has a longer lifespan.
- Create a great piece of content over and over that builds momentum, and then elevate that content to print.
-Re-think the content continuum. Start with digital successes. Learn from what the audience wants. Elevate those to print then drive them back to the digital world.
-Look at the consumer market (think about Instagram and all those offshoots).
-Elevate short-lived digital successes to high-quality print products. Extend their lifespan and reap the rewards. It is an often-missed opportunity in the marketing world, and it is an opportunity to cut through information overload.
The bottom line? The future of digital is print.
Click here to watch the webinar now!
Shweiki Media's mission has always been to help publishers improve by providing the most profitable, hassle-free printing experience possible. This includes guaranteeing the highest quality product, exceptional customer service, world-class communication, an on-time guarantee, and no surprises--whether printing magazines, postcards, flyers or anything else.
As a printer and publisher, Shweiki Media also believes that this hassle-free experience includes making their clients better. Utilizing relationships with industry experts, Shweiki Media strives to educate clients and help them thrive in the exciting world of publishing--while having lots of fun along the way!
For more great info from and about Shweiki Media, please check out our blog at shweiki.com/blog (and sign up for our FREE weekly expert webinars) and subscribe to our Youtube Channel at youtube.com/shweikimedia. You can also follow us @ShweikiMedia and "like" us at Facebook.com/shweikimedia.
David Reimherr, Shweiki Media, +1 (512) 480-0860, [email protected]
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