Finding the right content

For content enrichment and ongoing expansion of the website, a company can integrate a "knowledge area" as well as a "news area". In-depth information on products or company news can then be published there. But information as well as news always have a very close company reference and have to follow very strictly the communication concept of the company. And this is where the additional function of online magazines comes into play. If such a supplement is added to the company website, it is suddenly possible to communicate outside the predefined guidelines. Probably the greatest advantage here is the possible expansion of topics. The company is no longer limited to its product range and services, but can also delve into related topics. What would be extremely problematic on a company website is the salt in the soup in online magazines:

• Posts about related and adjacent topics
• Guest articles and guest comments
  
• Expert opinions and statistics
  
• Bidirectional communication through reader comments
  
• Controversial articles
  
• Reports on industry activities
  
• Personal opinions and sensitivities
  

Where does the added value come from?

Thematic expansion offers starting points for presenting the company's offering in a broader context. Useful information in the articles created brings streams of visitors who can subsequently be directed to the company website, where the company's actual advertising messages are then placed. The company websites then benefit from this. An online magazine can therefore be used to channel streams of visitors to the company website, whose accesses are already thematically very precisely tailored to the company's offering.

Difference between corporate blog and online magazine

The authorship of a corporate blog can be clearly assigned to the company from the outside. This is also communicated accordingly. Consequently, no claim to independence and "objectivity" is made. The clearly advertising character of the content is obvious and can be perceived by everyone. Online magazines and online newspapers, on the other hand, are published as company-independent thematic publications. Within the framework of the specified page line, the content has to fulfill a "journalistic" information mission. The company appears as the head sponsor and is given sufficient space in the reporting so that the desired promotional effects can be achieved. Online magazines also allow paid display advertising from partner companies to be placed on the start page, for example. This increases the independence character and additionally the real costs for the operation of the online magazine can be reduced.

Online magazine in implementation

As a rule, the online magazine is integrated into the company website either as a directory (www.firma.de/magazin) or as a subdomain (magazin.firma.de). In the former case, the advantage is that the published content and also accesses are directly attributed to the website. This results in advantages in the evaluation by search engines. In the latter case, there are no advantages from the point of view of search engine optimization, since search engines equate subdomains with completely independent domains. Due to the massive advance of mobile devices, it is inevitable to make the design platform-independent and responsive. Thus, the presentation of the magazine is always optimally adapted to the size of the display - regardless of whether it is a "small" smartphone or a "large" PC screen.