The power of customer publishing

Customer publishing is a rapidly growing industry where brands are using editorial content to engage consumers and extend a brand relationship - irrespective of media channel. Branded editorial content allows for good targeting and provides a great opportunity for softer messaging that is less commercial and more trusted than advertising.

The APA's Julia Hutchison offers an overview of the £904m UK market, and a breakdown of the key sectors - including retail, financial services and automotive - which are big players in customer publishing.

She also predicts the growth areas for the publishing industry and highlights the different ways that online and offline content can drive consumer response.

Key findings include:

• 44% of consumers who receive a customer magazine do something as a result of reading it - jumping to a massive 78% in the retail sector.

• Magazines can help improve loyalty to a brand by 32% and drive an 8% increase in product sales.

• 64% of readers of B2B customer magazines read every issue and 53% read a B2B customer magazine for more than 20 minutes.

• 39% of consumers that receive a magazine are driven online to investigate or purchase from that brand.