Our content creation strategy: Reclaim

Q. How is your content strategy evolving?

A: Content must always evolve and change, but it does feel as though, at the moment, change has been accelerated by market conditions and a landscape that’s consistently shifting. So, on one hand, there’s still a demand for the long read, personality, story, depth and a unique perspective whilst on the other, attention spans have become way shorter. We are bombarded by information and inspiration to the point of it being overwhelming and there are countless trends and an insatiable algorithm. Not to mention the rise of AI. We’re consistently told that print is on its knees, however Reclaim’s sales are steady, so it’s clear that demand for printed magazines is still very much alive, albeit in this changed landscape.

That leaves me with having to strike a balance between maintaining and growing our print readership, whilst satisfying a digital audience who expect unique content across our socials, website and newsletter. With limited resources, that can be very challenging, and I am always questioning whether the content in any context is actually useful or interesting to the reader. It can be very tempting to simply feed the algorithm, stress over follower numbers or bang out a newsletter just because it’s Thursday. And not to say we haven’t done all of those things, but at the start of the year we did a reader survey with some fascinating results and on the back of that, and our own insights, created a much clearer content strategy that makes our voice and POV sharper.

And I have to mention advertising, because it is an extremely challenging market right now, especially for independent publishers. Full page display adverts, or even a newsletter mention or website post, on its own, just aren’t attractive any longer. Brands want involvement and creative input — so this again informs our content strategy. We have to tell them through our content why we’re different, how we were the first UK interiors magazine to fully celebrate creative and conscious homes, the first to talk about upcycling and sustainability, vintage and salvage interiors and design — these are all in Reclaim’s DNA which has real value to a brand aligned with us.

So, with all of this context, we decided this year to drop our print frequency from ten to seven issues, which allows us longer between deadlines to spend more time on digital content, marketing and brand partnerships. We tried our first bookazine at Christmas — which we also sold internationally — and sales of this were healthy so we’ve just created another one, to celebrate our issue 100 and the plan is to create one every year. This gives readers further insight into the Reclaim world, allows the content to ‘breathe’ whilst adding a collector’s edition. Subscribers receive the bookazine as part of their subscription. In this way, we satisfy the demand for print that’s still there, reach a larger audience and have a special marketing touchpoint that gives us the opportunity to tell more of our story and, moreover, why our audience should care about it.

We go behind-the-scenes on our shoots, for example, or introduce new users to our expert columnists who include Banjo Beale and Laura Jane Clark. For issue 100, we created an animated cover with the cover feature’s homeowners, which was really fun and celebratory for our milestone issue.

We’ve also introduced Reclaim’s searchable digital archive as part of our print and digital subscriber offering, which is useful for readers if they want to find step-by-step upcycling projects, vintage interiors inspiration, a particular craft, product or source.

In terms of digital content, video has been brought into the mix, but used carefully. So an introduction to a new issue for example, or, again for issue 100, contributors talking about their favourite Reclaim moment.

Q: What have you learned when making content strategy changes?

A: Key learnings are targeting each platform — so we’re more playful on Threads, talk about sources and events on Facebook — and looking carefully at newsletter data and really leaning into our values and tone of voice, because this latter informs our content.

At heart, Reclaim is about inspiring story, connection and creating a happy home for everyone, whether they live in a small rented flat or Georgian pile. What our readers have in common is their commitment to expressing themselves in their homes, to filling their space with their unique style and personality and buying carefully and consciously.

For content creation, we aren’t a large publisher so have limited resources — but it’s still really important to maintain design consistency and understand all of the most effective tools in content creation.

Three top tips

1. If it’s a choice between quality or quantity, go for quality.
2. Ask yourself, is this piece of content genuinely useful, inspiring or entertaining?
3. Engage with your audience where they are. Respond and reply.

This article was included in the Content Creation Special, published by InPublishing in June 2025. Click here to see the other articles in this special feature.