Are you still running ads in your local newspaper? Using the local newspaper to drive sales in 2010 is not a marketing tactic that Catalyst Marketers recommends for ANY business. Now, I know I’m going to hear a few comments on the benefits of using newspaper ads for businesses who serve the 70+ crowd. I’m not totally dismissing creative print advertising, but the traditional newspaper ad is just not cutting it these days. Even businesses who serve the older consumer shouldn’t be running newspaper ads, reason being, people age 70 and over have many helpers when it comes to making purchasing decisions (among a few other things that we will get into a little later in the post).
I mean seriously, if you’re having success running newspaper ads, please weigh in via the comments section below. It would be great to get another perspective from someone who’s having success with traditional newspaper ads. I’m thinking we aren’t going to hear from many business owners…we’ll see.
A few reasons why traditional newspaper ads just don’t make “CENTS” for small businesses:
- Readership is dropping across the board
- Return-on-investment is hardly there these days, if at all
- Costs versus Ad Space are way to high – businesses can barely get their message out in a traditional newspaper ad, let along adding critical contact information (Promote Your Social Media in Print Ads)
- Newspaper ads are one & done (unless you want to pay more money) –> Print Ads Run for a Month, Online Content Lives Forever
Traditional newspaper ads, as a tool for driving sales at small businesses, just isn’t cutting it. Even if you are not ready to jump into the online marketing world, there are many other ways to spend your marketing dollars – by developing creative marketing tactics that will actually provide you a return-on-investment.
Get creative with your small business marketing. The tools are out there and the costs of marketing your small business have come down exponentially over the past few years. Quit spending your money on worthless newspaper ads — #ImJustSayin
Tags: print advertising, promote social tools, traditional advertising
I would have to say I completely agree with you. Print media is unfortunately a dying breed and I see evidence of this on a daily basis. I work in the SEM sector and all of my clients have been slowly transfering the marketing dollars from print to online in the past two years. The simple reason for this is the cost per acquisition is a fraction of what it is in print delivering them a much better ROI.