What is the value of print advertising to your business?

As the migration online continues across all areas of comms it’s easy to get carried away and ditch your print advertising schedule in favour of a more sexy pay per click campaign.

It’s true, print media doesn’t attract such compelling circulation figures these days - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2012/oct/12/abcs-national-newspapers

But before you throw the baby out with the bath water and convert to Google Ads, just double check what is truly the most cost-effective and successful option for your business.

For some businesses, display ads remain a legitimate and cost-effective route to market. But how often do you check your paid for space is really doing it’s job? When is the last time you considered doing any of the following:

Renegotiate rates – is there a better deal to secure, given the changing media landscape? Don’t accept the first quote, look to do a deal.

Reconsider placement – is your ad having to fight against other ads or starting to look like wallpaper? Think about new positioning and talk to your media buyer and ad designer about a change of shape or size to create fresh interest.

How often do you change the message or design? Subject to budget, look to refresh things on a regular basis. Think about seasonal changes or trends that run in line with your business and tweak, without losing your brand identity.

Stand out from the crowd – the simplest ideas are usually the best and catch attention. Less is usually regarded as more in ad design so revisit your material and strip out any unnecessary detail that prevents the customer seeing the real message.

Is the ‘call to action’ obvious enough. Ads raise profile but ultimately they serve a purpose, to encourage customers to get in touch, find out more about your business, buy from you. Ensure your incentive or ‘call to action’ is clear and contact details are prominent.

And if you’re reviewing ad schedules, spread your net wider. As news titles look to run tighter copy templates, lifestyle and community magazines, even parish newsletters, are coming into their own. If you’re trying to target specific audiences, these will often provide an affordable option.

And what about measurement? Every inquiry needs to be asked the same question – ‘where did you hear about us’, ‘what made you get in touch’. It might seem tiresome but so is wasting hard-earned ad budget.

Monitoring source of inquiries and sales conversions will soon prove if display ads are paying their way. If they’re no longer doing so, then it’s time to consider a change.

Dawn Strange