Resources

Magazine designers—we make pages look pretty, right?

If you're a healthcare marketer who oversees a print piece, you need more than pretty pics and fancy fonts to create an engaging and effective custom magazine—one that reaches and moves your audience.

Team up to make your healthcare magazine shine

Designers can bring a lot of expertise to the table to help you get a great end result. What's the best way to work with designers? There's no single right way, but good communication on both sides is key.

Coffey's design team offers these tips for getting the most out of your creative collaboration with designers.

Share your goals and insights with magazine designers

Let designers know your hopes for the magazine and for each piece of healthcare content within it. You possess valuable information about your healthcare organization, its mission, marketing goals, branding and personality. Let us know your objectives and challenges—who your audience is and what actions you want them to take.

Can you provide insight about any preferences or pressures from the C-suite or other stakeholders? You don't want to hamper creativity. But with the whole picture in mind, we can avoid missteps and create the best solutions to fit your needs from the start.

Plan a custom magazine design together when possible

Often, designers aren't brought into the process until the content is all lined out and ready to go, but this approach can result in missed opportunities. Bringing designers in early is simply making the most of your resources. In these early stages, designers can collaborate with you to:

• Brainstorm creative solutions. We can work together to decide how best to package and tailor your healthcare content to appeal to your audience and meet your goals. For example, infographics, image-based articles and games and puzzles are just a few engaging ways to package healthcare content.
• Create an integrated approach. Chances are that print is not the only way you interact with your audience. Creating ties between your magazine and your digital marketing efforts allows you to maximize your impact and unify your message. Those other marketing outlets might include your website and social media content.
• For example, your print magazine could include a call to action that directs readers to the URL for your main site. Or you might want to drive traffic to a microsite and measure its results. (Which healthcare marketing initiatives might benefit from the use of a microsite, or mini-website? Check out this blog post.)
• Offer helpful direction on images. Turn to designers to help make sure images are both compelling and technically solid. Have a photo shoot scheduled? Ask your designer for input on—or samples of—what will work well in your healthcare magazine. This upfront collaboration can make the difference between a photo that is so-so and one that is amazing.

Be flexible during layout and production

When your custom healthcare magazine is being put together, be ready to adapt and adjust. Even the best plans may need rethinking during this critical time, and better ideas may present themselves too. Being open to this can make a big difference in your end product.

Let designers know you trust them to problem solve with the goals in mind—and that you're also standing by to hear new ideas and to help with any hiccups.

Provide fruitful feedback on the design work

When a design doesn't sit well with you, we want to know. Be as clear as you can about what isn't working. You may have insights and suggestions, but don't feel like you need to offer a specific solution to the problem. With both input and leeway, we can use our expertise to improve the piece to meet, and hopefully exceed, your expectations.

On the flip side, let designers know when they've really hit the mark. That feels great—and it can also help us better serve you in the future.

We get healthcare marketing: By design

Coffey's designers work exclusively with healthcare marketers. We're confident we can deliver on great custom design for your goals and audience—both in print and online. See some of our award-winning work, or request information.