Don’t Count Print Out Just Yet
“Print is again going to attract advertisers who are willing to say: ‘I don’t care about being cool. I want to drive big sales at a good price.’”
President and CEO of News Media Alliance – David Chavern
With Internet marketing and social media becoming so popular, the more traditional methods of marketing seem to have fallen by the wayside. Is print advertising still a worthy investment?
Everywhere you look, there is talk of using the Internet as a marketing outlet and while social media and online advertising are certainly effective, it isn’t the only method of marketing out there. Print advertising is still alive and well, for a variety of reasons.
Pros of Print Marketing
Credibility
Despite the cost, there are some serious benefits to having your business appear in a magazine or newspaper. First, it still conveys a certain level of credibility, something that isn’t always evident online where everyone can pay $10-25 to get their ad on a decent website. If you want to be respected, print is still one of the higher quality mediums, simply because of the price. This is one reason you might want to consider it . . . people will look at your business differently than they would online.
“Influentials” Are Swayed by Print
An MRI Survey of the American Consumer found that “influentials,” those consumers who have the ability to sway other consumers, are influenced by print ads, with 51% being influenced by magazines and 53% influenced by newspapers.
Print Readers Have Bigger Attention Spans
The digital age has pretty much killed the human attention span. We surf the web with six different tabs open while someone is instant messaging us, another is texting us, and “The Walking Dead” is on the TV in the background. We’re simply not as receptive to all of the digital advertising happening around us.
Print readers, on the other hand, don’t typically multitask when they read a magazine or newspaper, making them far more receptive to the ads within the publication.
Print Ads Offer More Flexibility and Options
Print marketing tends to target a very specific audience, which means your ad will reach plenty of people who are more likely to be interested in your products and services. When it comes to magazines, you are placing your promotional materials in front of people interested enough in that specific topic to purchase a magazine about it.
About Newspaper Audiences:
- 7 in 10 college graduates read newspaper media
- Upscale consumers are more likely to engage with newspaper media
- In an average week, 63% of American adults read a newspaper
- 56% of customers find print marketing to be the most trustworthy type of marketing
- Readers retain more information when reading print
Effective and Efficient:
- Newspaper advertising makes your online display ads 4x more effective
- 8 in 10 adults take action on newspaper ads
- 7 in 10 couponers use newspapers as a coupon source
- 52% of adults use newspapers for shopping planning and purchase decisions
- 63% of readers look at ads as they read the newspaper
- Newspapers are the leading medium consumers use for coupons
- Newspaper ads increase ROI by 3x
Last year, the estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation reached 35 million Americans for weekday delivery and 38 million for Sunday. It is an audience that not only believes in the importance of journalism but also understands that print is a pretty good technology.
Print advertising may not be as popular with some businesses these days, but it is still a very useful method of promotion. Your best option is to use a combination of both online and print marketing, to reach as many people as possible in as many ways as you can.