Olivia Atkinson
Print advertising has been around since earlier than the 17th century. It’s a very traditional method of advertising, but is it still the most effective way to reach your audience?
As the digital age continues to present us with online marketing tools, does print still have a place in our marketing strategy or should we we be discarding it all together.
Digital tools allow us to see who viewed content, what platform they came through, what device they are using, how many pages they viewed, how long they viewed those pages and even live recordings how they move around the website.
You can’t get this data from print advertising.
The Power Of Print
Many magazines and experts will stand by the fact that print advertising taps into a different part of the brain to online advertising. As we sit at our desks in front of a computer all day we tend to scan material quicker, whereas paper-based reading is slower and more deliberate.
Studies have also suggested that readers trust print more than any other medium, making a better impression than digital ads.
Neuroscience has actually proven that on a brain-chemistry level, people process print content with greater engagement and a deeper emotional response compared to digital.
The biggest downside with print is that it has a lifetime, whereas online content only gets stronger with time. As many magazines do a monthly magazine your advert has an expected lifetime of 4 weeks max.
How Do You Know If Print Advertising Is Working For You
The one issue people have with print advertising is that it’s not trackable.
A magazine might claim that they reach 40,000 people but how many of them add it to a pile on their desk with all good intentions but never get around to reading it.
With digital marketing being a huge part of companies strategies, the biggest advantage is that data is knowledge. You can clearly see where the traffic is coming from and do more of what works.
The majority of magazines now publish an online version of the print magazine too.
Tip: If you get space in a magazine, ensure they have a link to your website on the online version. This will not only make the traffic trackable but improve your domain authority as magazines are authoritative sources.
Ways To Measure Print Advertising
The most obvious way to find out how people have heard of you is to ask them, take an interest.
You might find that another company is recommending you as they can’t fulfil the jobs, it could be word of mouth from a previous job, a print ad or an email campaign.
If something works well for you, do more of it.
Another way is to offer a discount code or a contact email address that is unique to the print ad only, this way you can measure how successful your print ads are and just how many people turn into customers.
Is Digital Dominating?
As previously mentioned, people love digital as it’s measurable and trackable. Having a good online platform is key whether you do print advertising or not. The biggest platform that’s used for researching and finding out further information is search engines.
How many times a day do you say ‘Google it’? We turn to the web for everything as we’ll most likely find the answer we’re looking for.
So if you’re spending the time to create high quality engaging adverts for print, make sure your website reflects the same level of quality.
Its more than likely that if someone sees your advert and is interested, they’ll research you online first before getting in touch.
People like to make up there own minds rather than being told what to do, so make sure you have the information like reviews, case studies, and product specifications so they can judge whether you’re a good fit for them or not.
Think About Who Your Audience Are
As certified HubSpot partners we know how important it is to present your prospects with the right content, at the right time at the right place.
With digital this is easily managed, automation and workflows manage your lead nurturing by triggering certain emails when they’ve visited specific pages an amount of times or downloaded a brochure.
With print you cannot determine where your potential prospects are in the buyers journey so you can’t tailor your advert to everyone.
Your advert may be advertised at people in the decision stage of the buyers journey, whereas some people may only be at the awareness stage and your content isn’t relevant to them.
You also need to consider your buyer personas, who are your actual customers?
If your buyer persona research tells you that your prospects are between the age of 25-35, use social media, only read online articles and do video meetings as they don’t’ have time to travel then print advertising won’t be appropriate.
However you should have more than one buyer persona, and if one of them is a managing director, aged over 50 who loves reading the newspaper and magazines then you know its worth your time and money.
Conclusion
In a very traditional industry its no wonder that companies spend there budget on print, but make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Trial a unique email or discount code to see just how many of your monthly leads are coming from print ads.
Digital will always be an essential platform, but it can be used with print to bring great results. Print is set to take on digital with augmented print, just like QR codes print can be interactive with your smartphone.
But first focus on measuring if your print ads are working, some companies reprint the same advert in a magazine every month and think that’s a good way to spend the budget.
It might be, but wouldn’t you rather prove that with data? If not then you could be spending the money more wisely in other areas such as product directories.
Although Insynth is a digital growth agency it doesn’t disregard print; print ads or editorials can be a great way of reaching a new audience, just make sure there is structure to the magazines you choose and that your website reflects the same message.
Insynth offers a free of charge website audit, pinpointing areas for improvement and quick easy wins to improve your lead generation. Get in touch today for yours.
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About Insynth
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major on construction marketing, we bring together construction marketing strategy, digital strategy, website design, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, sales automation, marketing automation and HubSpot CRM implementation to produce successful campaigns and great results for our clients.