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You communicate with customers daily — pushing promotional material their way. Ads, brochures, marketing materials, mailings, your Web site. The question is: How do you pull customers in, engage them with deeper content, present a point of view that isn't overtly promotional?

You create a corporate magazine.

Unlike marketing materials, a corporate magazine speaks with an independent, journalistic voice that's interesting to your customers — and favorable to your company. If done right, your magazine will gain a strong readership and demonstrate that your company is committed to sharing information, rather than just selling.

Corporate magazines are becoming an increasingly important component in the marketing mix, whether they're distributed in print or online.

But how do you go about creating one? And how do you sustain the effort? These nine fundamentals will put you on the path to success.

1. Start with a strong editor-art director team

It's crucial to your magazine's success. A top editor understands your readers and generates a variety of ideas and interesting content to intrigue them. A talented art director builds your brand through a strong visual strategy that includes enticing layouts and arresting graphics. Together, this team creates a magazine that will appeal to your target audience and differentiate you from competitors.

2. Map out a year of content

Whether your magazine is monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, you need solid editorial content — a whole year's worth — before you start. Plan themes, cover stories, columns, interviews, and articles. Line up authors, editors, ghostwriters, photographers, and illustrators. Research articles you might republish.

Upfront planning is hard. But the alternative — creating your magazine on the fly, issue by issue — requires lots of antacid tablets. Or an iron gut. Magazines have immovable deadlines.

3. Create a memorable name

Give your magazine a great name — that's relevant, accurate, perhaps even clever. Create an accompanying tagline to identify your readers and clarify the magazine's purpose. If you've done your job right, readers should instantly recognize that the magazine is for them. For example, a magazine named the "Knowledge Quarterly" is clearly targeted at high-level executives. The tagline, "Insights for Financial Professionals," further specifies the audience.

Remember: Readers may shorten your magazine name, often not the way you intended. Plan for this.

4. Design a unique masthead

Make a strong graphic statement that can hold its own — month after month, year after year. Determine how cover art will work with the masthead: Can it obscure a portion of the masthead or must it never interfere? And don't forget to establish an upfront system that clearly identifies issues, volume numbers, and dates.

5. Create a distinctive cover style

You need to capture attention with each issue — and establish consistency without becoming formulaic. That's a tall order. How do you do it? Create your own visual brand. Determine whether you'll use original photography or illustration. Decide whether your images will be realistic or metaphorical. Clarify how closely you will crop and whether you should always (or never) include people.

Make sure you can sustain your cover style indefinitely — without boring your audience. And be sure to buy or create the best cover art your budget will allow. Prominent, high-quality visuals make an undeniable impact.

6. Determine the pagination

This is the "what goes where." It's more than a table of contents. It's the grid or structure that you must fill with content and imagery each issue. As you plan your year of content (step 2), you will change this pagination many times over. Take the time to get it right, then stick with it. Readers appreciate a familiar structure — with consistent locations for favorite columns or articles.

7. Involve your readers

Create sections where readers can express their point of view, serve as experts, ask questions, be interviewed. You'll create interesting content — and build readership, even among those who claim "no time to read."

8. Ask the tough questions

Are readers interested in what you're creating for them? Like you, they're busy. Will the magazine catch their eye? Hold their interest? Communicate something new? Be brutally honest.

9. Balance improvement with familiarity

Once you get your magazine launched, look for ways to improve it, without undermining the familiarity of your features. Don't throw out a section just because you're tired of it. Find out what your readers think, then act.

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