Might print be a place to achieve long-term branding success?
While newspapers’ readership and revenue are declining, people are still reading them – especially local newspapers (and weeklies in my market).
I was meeting with a friend and local print-media publisher earlier this week, and he told me that I am so far ahead of where the general consumer is that I should at least consider advertising in his publication. He wasn’t explicitly trying to sell me (we’re better friends than that) but encouraging me to reconsider my position – that print is a waste of money without a reasonable means by which to track ROI. But how does one track infiltration into the public consciousness?
Not being a marketer by trade, I don’t know the answer. (Local) Print seems to be best for those with ginormous budgets seeking to brand themselves and their companies using large outlays of cash over a long period of time. As the market downturn continues, Realtors drop out and (hopefully) the cost to advertise in print publications declines – is now the time to jump in and negotiate long-term deals for print?
There is potentially real opportunity to be had (per Chris Anderson):
The truth is that the newspaper business is still a huge industry and will be around in one form or another for the rest of my life. That is not to dismiss the declines, but only to note that there’s still a lot of money there and what is required is strategic change, not giving up the ghost.
My opinion is that the weekly real estate rags don’t sell houses – ads brand the Realtors – and it’s harder and harder to differentiate your product (the house in most cases) from the other thousand 2×2-sometimes-grainy-text-limited-ads smushed together on a page. But – branding in other publications to drive traffic to good content – the blog – could be the means to increase (loyal) visitors, subscribers, and ultimately transactions.
Why did they visit your site?
Because they saw your ad in X publication.
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