• Build brand loyalty by 32%
• Increase customer expenditure by 8%
• Enhance brand image by 9% where content is perceived as high quality.

44% of people take positive action as a result of a custom publication. The more you can get customers to read your magazine, the more they will spend with you.

Statistics from APA's Advantage Study, 2005

1. Formulate the title objectives and success metrics in collaboration with you
2. Develop the editorial and design concept in line with budgets
3. Conduct an editorial planning meeting with the client and the editorial and publishing team
4. Editorial, image and other relevant briefs signed off by the client
5. Commission writers, illustrators and photographers
6. Design magazine pages
7. Design proofs signed off by the client
8. Prepare files for print
9. Approval of printers' proofs
10. Printing
11. Delivery to distribution channels

Clear objectives and success metrics
Understand what you want your title to achieve, set appropriate benchmarks and measure before, during and after publication to make sure it achieves its objectives.

Customer/audience research
Who wants to purchase your product/service or become a client of your organisation? What motivates them? What do they want to read about? Gather information about the needs of your target audience and then develop a clear set of objectives.

Telling, not selling
The longer your customers read your custom publication, the more money they will spend with you, research has found (APA Advantage study, 2005). Surreptitious sales pitches are a turn off. Aim for high-quality, objective editorial that informs, entertains and educates.

Integrated, multi-platform communications
Your custom publication should be supported by and integrated with your other communications and commercial channels.

Get online
Give customers or members a secondary point.

Your title's success metrics will depend on the objectives you defined at the outset. There are a number of areas you can look at:

Reader surveys and focus groups
Regularly review reader response to track the success of the publication against its objectives.

Track spikes in sales around the date of publication
Track any correlation between the publication's release date and volume of enquiry, traffic or sales.

Measure the relationship between offline and online activity
On your publication's release date, review any spike in search terms related to the edition and associated traffic on your website.

Track response mechanisms
Measure subscription rates and response rates to offers and competitions.

Self-funding custom publications are the lucky few. Advertising frequently makes a significant contribution to the funding of the title but additional investment is often required, particularly in the start up phase of a new publication.

• Editorial content and commissioning
• Design
• Image commissioning and purchase
• Print
• Distribution