A Visual Customer Roadmap For Print & PDF Publishers Transitioning to Digital
We have been creating digital publishing solutions for publishers since 2014 and have been part of many different conversations. When we first started creating MagLoft back in 2013, we thought we were creating a SaaS product that would cover all the needs of all publishers.
Boy were we wrong :)
Hi Medium, this is Nick Martin from MagLoft. We develop software to help all kinds of publishers generate more traffic, readers, and revenue with our content creation, distribution, and marketing platform.
We have now worked with many different publishers and although most have very similar challenges and needs, we still receive many unique requests and specific use cases.
We are a small startup of currently 12 team members and are still bootstrapped. We have never taken any investments (not saying that we wouldn’t ever) which has allowed us to experiment a lot with different features, business models and types of clients. What an amazing journey it has been!
The Digital Publishing Blueprint
Long story short, based on all of our experience working with a multitude of different types of clients, we have been bold enough to break down the transition from print/PDF to online publishing into our blueprint of 9 chapters.
We use these 9 steps with our clients which helps with several things. It gives a great visual representation of where they currently are in the journey. It helps break down all the many things a publisher needs to consider when setting up their online presence, and it gives a clear picture of “what’s next”.
This Blueprint is something we are currently trialing with our new customers and so far the feedback has been extremely positive.
Eating Our Own Dog Food
One thing we have found to be extremely valuable when looking for new publishers to work with is actually using our own product to demonstrate its use.
We are using our own Universal App publishing solution to deliver the contents of the free version of our Blueprint Guide. So in order to read our Blueprint guide, publishers also get to experience the software that powers the creation, delivery, and marketing of the guide — our Universal App.
The Blueprint guide educates publishers on all the steps (chapters) required to launch a successful online/digital publication. It’s written in a way that’s platform/software-independent and yet it demonstrates in a subtle way how publishers can use our software for their own online publication while following the Blueprint.
That was a bit of a mouthful, did that make sense?
I guess the takeaway and what I really wanted to share with you is:
- Create a visual representation of the problem you solve which you can show to new prospects in order to give them the roadmap and a clear path to where they want to go.
- Use this roadmap to educate your audience on how you work with them and help them get to where they want to be, step-by-step.
- Demonstrate how your product/service compliments the roadmap and can accelerate the journey.
This has so far worked quite well for us. It’s a nice refreshing way to pitch and be transparent with potential new clients on what to expect.
What do you think? Do you do something similar?
