B2B Customer Magazines Prove Engaging For Readers
Business to business customer magazines engage readers for an average of 26 minutes, according to new findings from the APA’s customer magazine effectiveness benchmark, the Advantage Study.
In addition, 24% of respondents spent between 30 minutes and more than two hours with a B2B title in comparison to the Advantage Study average of 19%. 51% of respondents retain their copies for a month or over and one in three people (35%) keep B2B titles for reference, while 8% pass them on to a colleague or friend.
Over half (53%) of respondents were found to pick up a title between 1-4 times and 55% regularly read half or more of the magazine. Positive opinion is also strong for B2B customer magazines with 42% of readers agreeing that they either quite liked it, liked it a lot or thought it was excellent. The research also shows that B2B titles boost brand appeal by a quarter, with 25% of readers saying that a customer magazine makes a company more appealing.
B2B customer magazines have also been found to provoke response. 29% or one in four readers visit a company’s website as a result of reading the magazine, in comparison to 14% for consumer customer titles, and 13% also go on to request further information.
Julia Hutchison, COO of the APA said: “Traditionally B2B audiences are extremely difficult to reach and engage. List data is often woefully out of date and gate keepers tend to block the path to decision makers.
“However, the latest cut of results from the Advantage Study provides evidence for something that those of us in the customer publishing industry have long suspected: the medium’s ability to engage with hard to reach audiences that other media channels can’t.”
Emily Travis, head of publishing at Royal Mail added: “Business to business customer magazines are a powerful tool in the B2B marketers armoury as the research shows that they are valued by recipients.
“Companies can have profitable conversations with their customers, which in turn improving the likelihood of respondents continuing their relationship with the brand as a direct result of receiving the magazine.”