Is Print Advertising Still Relevant?
In today’s society where everything is digital and paperless seems to be the way forward does print advertising still have a place within the sphere of marketing?
In a large number of cases it’s often very wasteful which translates directly as a waste of money. Another factor to consider is that no matter how high the readership of a given publication is it doesn’t mean that you’d ad will get noticed. You may argue that it comes down to the positioning of the advert but realistically you’ll be forking out a huge sum of money to get an ad into the first few pages.
As bleak as it may seem it’s not an entirely lost art. For some businesses it’s the best method available to them for reaching their prospective clients with a piece of advertising. As a small business you need to get sales from those ads as quickly as possible.
Print advertising is not a strategy for small businesses to go round trying to raise brand awareness, it should never be an objective. It’s a method used by big businesses who already have an established brand to market.
So how do you get an ad selling right from the start you ask?
Read on and you’ll discover the 5 secret ingredients to make an ad sell.
Headlines!
Your headline is the first carrot you dangle in front of your audience and it has to catch their eye. Don’t use a sales pitch as a headline, it’s only designed to draw a reader’s attention and get them looking at the rest of your ad.
Reasons
Every ad has a reason behind it, you need to make sure yours creates interest and desire for your product in readers. Without it you’ve missed the chance.
What’s your offer?
If a reader responds to your ad what are they going to get for their effort?
An ordinary offer can be turned into a special offer by including a form of discount or even something for free.
Never put a product into an ad and slap a market value price on it, they could already get it for the same price elsewhere (maybe even cheaper if they’re savvy enough)
Why should they contact you?
Give them a reason why they have to get in touch with you as soon as possible. Urgency is the key, limiting the time on an offer is one way or you can limit the number you’re making available.
A reader will see this and be prompted to get in touch that much quicker.
Without urgency they could pick it up at their leisure.
How can they respond
A reader has to know how they can get in touch with you in order to take up your offer.
It’s no good telling them to get in touch now and then not leaving any contact information for them to reach you.
You could leave something that simple as an instruction to visit your website (with the relevant link of course)
Leaving different methods of contact is never a bad idea either, people have certain preferred methods of contacting others. Give them that and they’ll be more inclined to respond.
For some bonus points (provided you have the available space) you can also include the following:
- Guarantee(s)
- Testimonials
- Images
- Relevant sub headings
Next time you’re thinking of running a print advertisement campaign then remember that it’s still a perfectly viable marketing strategy. All you need to do is follow the above points and you’ll be on the road to success.