Schatz Strategy Group | Citizen-Soldier Magazine

OVERVIEW

Produced by The Army National Guard, a division of the National Guard Bureau, Citizen-Soldier magazine serves as an ARNG retention tool, with an ancillary objective of functioning as a recruiting tool. The publication provided existing junior to mid-career Soldiers and potential Guard Soldiers with information about recent missions, current trends, and soldier and family benefits within the Army National Guard.

NGB'S NEEDS

Citizen-Soldier magazine either informed or reminded junior and mid-career Soldiers of the many unique advantages available within the Army National Guard. Encouraging Soldiers to partake in these advantages, Citizen-Soldier worked to help them experience healthier and longer military careers. NGB wanted to revamp the magazine to be more engaging and relevant for soldiers and develop a new online version that engages readers with multiple interactive tools to boost users’ interaction with other Army National Guard online resources.

STRATEGY

The Schatz team worked to ensure that timely and relevant content—maintained and delivered in formats that were engaging and attractive to the target demographic—was published in each issue. Our writers provided original content developed through interviews, research, and on-site event coverage.

Schatz developed partnerships with ARNG state public affairs and retention officers and traveled to states around the country to cover training exercises and unique units, filling magazines with stories about current training initiatives, benefits updates, and special soldier spotlights.
Each issue included a 16-page geo-targeted section. This section assisted states in need of additional support with retention efforts.

APPROACH

The publication provided existing and potential Guard Soldiers with information about recent missions and current trends within the Army National Guard. It also featured spotlights on soldiers and tips—provided by subject matter experts and DoD and NGB leaders—that offered advice and insight on how soldiers could enrich their time in the Army National Guard and balance their civilian lives.

The Managing Editor worked with NGB staff to develop recurring content themes. The themes encompassed recent missions and deployments, military training exercises, Guard career advancement opportunities, Soldier competitions and achievements, health and education benefits, family resources, and fitness and wellness topics.

The editorial team conducted dozens of interviews each month, speaking with Guard Soldiers, Soldier spouses and Family members, ARNG Public Affairs Officers (PAOs), senior officers, NGB officials, and Army civilians. In addition to scheduling interviews, the Public Relations Specialist responded to inquiries from Soldiers and ARNG officials on behalf of the magazine, collected imagery and articles from ARNG public affairs professionals, conducted research, and identified content—such as national events involving Guard Soldiers—that could be highlighted in the publication.

The design team employed the 50-50 rule—50 percent imagery and 50 percent text—to keep readers engaged and ensure longer engagement periods with the publication. Schatz designed Citizen-SoldierMagazine.com with a modern look and feel that incorporated responsive web design and established best practices for both UX (user experience) and SEO (search engine optimization).

To promote the online edition experience of Citizen-Soldier magazine, Schatz produced and distributed a direct email campaign to all active Army National Guard members and field locations. Schatz implemented a grassroots online marketing strategy to optimize the overall reach and engagement of Citizen-SoldierMagazine.com with its target audiences, utilizing the Army National Guard’s existing online social media community to drive traffic to the Citizen-Soldier magazine website.

RESULTS

Citizen-SoldierMagazine.com garnered over half a million visits in the first 7 months online and, over the life of the site, the online initiatives implemented and managed by Schatz increased user engagement by 497 percent.
The Schatz editorial team conducted more than 400 interviews across the life of the contract.
After only one year in publication, Citizen-Soldier magazine was noted by several ARNG recruiters as being one of their top recruited tools.
Enlisted soldiers and ARNG public affairs offices invited the magazine’s editorial team from across the country to cover soldier stories or join the public affairs team in the on-site coverage of training events an average of 20 times per month.
After beginning partnerships with Army National Guard PAOs in each state, the number of Citizen-SoldierMagazine.com sessions that originated from social media posts increased by over 209 percent.
The average time on page by users coming from social media increased by over a minute.
The number of articles shared from the website to Facebook increased by well over 1,000 percent.