Is Print Advertising Successful?

Recently I was asked to comment on print advertising such as Yellow Pages, Newspaper, Magazine etc. My answer is (and has always been) that it really depends on your line of business and who you are targeting to.

In order to use any medium for advertising, one really has to look at the target market, e.g. Income level, what they read, what do they buy, where do they shop , etc. Once you have this figured out, then you need to decide what is your marketing budget. After you have decided on that figure, find out how much does it cost in the medium you want to advertise. Generally speaking the longer you run the ad; the cheaper it is. Once you have made that calculation, then you want to make the right ad (text, graphics, etc.) . For the last step, you need to have some way of tracking the ad results.

Now, most of the popular medium of advertising, e.g. yellow pages, newspaper etc. will have some tools that you can use to access the effectiveness of you ad campaign. Ask your rep.

So, the question is does it work? For print advertising it is generally recommended that you run your ad for at least 6-8 months before your ad will start to register with your target market. Anything less than that would be a waste of time and money.

I always recommend alternative advertising sources that produce much faster results. However, there are instances where you may benefit from print advertising.

Sal
www.salmankkhan.com