Print Marketing

It’s not all about the Internet; printed advertising strategies for small businesses are still effective — as long as the strategy is targeting the right groups. There are lots of niche publications that are very useful if you want to reach a specific audience, and advertising through these media can be very cost-effective. So here’s a method to follow if you want to build a great offline advertising strategy as a small business.

Step One — Identify Target Markets

There are lots of print media publications out there that reach a very specific target audience. And if you want to reach one of those audiences, advertising in these media can often give you incredible exposure to a particular market segment.

There are lots of well-established, popular magazines that target specific groups. An example is the surfer’s bible Tracks. If you have a product or service that’s aimed at surfers, one of the best ways is to advertise in Tracks. This is also true for other hobbies and sports. For horse lovers, Hoofbeats magazine would be the Tracks-equivalent. For car enthusiasts, it’s Wheels. If you have a business that offers services into these or similar markets, why not try advertising in trade magazines to generate sales?

It’s true many of these magazines have Web sites and advertising on these sites can also deliver good results for your business. But many people who subscribe to special interest magazines prefer the hard copy version, which is why advertising in this medium pays off.

There are also other groups that routinely use the printed version of a title over the online version. The largest of these groups is probably the elderly. People in this category often don’t have knowledge of or access to online media, preferring traditional media instead. So if your business provides services to this market, it’s a good idea to look for printed publications to advertise in.

If your target audience is a specialised business or trade market, printed advertising is also a good option. There are vast numbers of specialised trade journals — Ragrader, Ad News and Manufacturers’ Monthly are just three of the hundreds of specialist titles offered in these markets.

Step Two — Select the Right Approach

As a small business, there are two ways of getting your message out in printed media. The traditional way is to pay for advertising. But it’s also possible to get exposure in print publications for free by using publicity.

There are a couple of approaches you can take if you want to use publicity to appear in printed publications. One idea is to write expert articles on a topical theme and submit these pieces to publications that target your industry sector. Let’s say you have developed a piece of specialist software for the logistics industry. Instead of paying for traditional advertising, you can write an expert article or opinion piece you could pitch to the editor of Logistics magazine.

But be careful not to write an article that only exalts the virtues of your business. The idea is to write an article of interest to the industry as a whole, perhaps commenting on new regulations in the industry, for example. The idea is to take a leadership approach and position yourself as an industry expert.

Step 3 — Evaluate the Results

Small businesses often make the mistake of taking a tactical rather than a strategic approach to advertising. They will advertise only once or twice in a publication, instead of investing in an ongoing advertising campaign. It’s very difficult to get results from an ad hoc approach to advertising. Instead, it’s a much better idea to put in place a series of activities as part of your advertising strategy and measure the results of the program overall. That way, you’ll be able to tell which advertising options deliver sales for the business and which don’t.

So, let’s say you have committed to spending $20,000 on an advertising campaign in a reputed industry publication over six months. You will need to generate $20,000 in sales just to cover the cost of the campaign. You will also need to identify which sales were generated as a result of the ad campaign. So you need to develop systems in the business to monitor the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

This might involve training staff to ask new customers how they heard of the business. You can also offer promotions and special offers in advertisements. When a coupon for the special offer is presented to the business, make a record that the sale was generated through the campaign. At the end of the campaign, review how many coupons were redeemed and sales made as a result of the campaign. This will give you an idea about how successful the campaign was.

Although printed advertising can be a great way to target niche audiences, it’s an idea to coordinate your printed media campaign with any online advertising you are doing. Many publishing houses now offer advertising packages that combine online and offline content. And it’s a great idea to explore these packages so that you can build high awareness of and sales for your business, both in the offline and online media environment.