Is Print Advertisement Officially Dying?

It has been recently reported that Telegraph Media Group’s annual pre-tax profits halved last year to £13.7m from £27.1m in the previous year.

As a result of this, Telegraph has announced a £10m annual push into digital which they hope will create 100 jobs throughout the business.

Why are fewer people choosing print as an advertising option?

As we have advanced within the social media world, we have been given more tools to create tailored advertisements. We can target interests, job roles, location and gender as well as various other options.

Think of it this way – why would companies want to place an expensive advert on a billboard or in a newspaper without being able to track any sales or know who will be reading it? Sure, we can get an idea of the newspaper’s demographic, but it won’t be as specific compared to the targeting tools that come with social media and Google AdWords.

Not only that, it seems a lot simpler to be able to place an advertisement on social media than through a newspaper or magazine.

Compared to last year, we can also see a decrease in publications for popular newspaper print organisations due to fewer people purchasing them. The public can now view all recent news online so they see no reason to purchase newspapers. The ones that did increase in publications only did so by an average of 0.24% and two of three of the papers are free to read.

ABC national newspaper print circulation figures for January 2018 (and online figures below):

Audiences on social media continue to grow, so it is imperative that companies recognise the benefits and advantages of investing in digital marketing.

From 2010-2017, we can see a steady increase in social media users worldwide.

Is Print Advertisement Still Worth it?

It is still possible to create an effective marketing campaign with the use of print advertisement – with a lot of careful planning.

Here are a few reasons why print is still worth doing

Brand Trust

Seeing an advert in a magazine or newspaper, no one questions the authenticity of it. We just automatically trust the brand and its products and services.

With the recent scandals we’ve seen through Facebook, such as the Cambridge Analytica incident and the 3,500 false Russian ads, it can sometimes be hard to fully trust an advert.

Fewer Brands are Doing it

We are all bored of seeing advertisements online. They’re everywhere – websites, social media, search engines. It is even more frustrating when you are browsing a website or reading an article and advertisements unexpectedly pop up take up the whole screen.

With everything going on around the adverts, we do not really stop to fully take them in. We have to make sure they are visually appealing and eye-catching to stand out from the rest.

With a decrease in companies creating print adverts, you can stay ahead of competitors and keep your audience engaged. Reading a magazine or newspaper, they are more likely to read the advert if it is related to your audience’s topic of interest.

Better Engagement

Neuroscience proved that print ads have better engagement than digital adverts. People process print content at a slower pace than online content, which leads to a better focus and more engagement.

Although, the engagement can all depend on the appearance of your advert and the message behind it.

Tips to create an effective print advert

Do Your Research

If you have an audience with a certain demographic, advertising in a newspaper or magazine with a similar demographic is the first step to a successful campaign. For example, if you are advertising beauty products, aim for your advertising to be in a beauty magazine. You need to consider the types of beauty products advertised in each magazine. Is it drug store make up or high end? This can give you an indication of whether your product would be suitable for a magazine such as Vogue (high end) or Cosmopolitan (drug store).

You can apply this same rule to any product your offering. Think about the price of the product and how you want it to be portrayed to your audience.

Create Attractive Adverts

Don’t focus on including every piece of information possible. Information overload will put your audience off. Instead, create an intriguing advert that tells the viewer enough about the product/service you’re offering, all whilst including attractive imagery. Keep it simple and clean. A soft sell strategy is more effective than a hard sell. As consumers, we all want to know the story behind products and the dreams it can create rather than the reality of how the product can benefit us.

Include Your Branding

There’s no point in advertising your company if you aren’t going to relate it to your brand. Include a mixture of elements relating to your brand such as your logo, colour scheme, typography and name to make sure people know who the advert is by – that way it creates brand awareness and they are more likely to remember you later.

Remember the CTA (Call to Action)

Consider what your goal is when creating your advertisement. Is it website visits, store visitors, increased sales? Think about the most suitable call to action to include in your advertisement. It could be something such as your business address, phone number or website link.

Sticking with digital marketing?

Digital marketing offers many benefits and is becoming the future. With more people recruiting for people with digital marketing skills, it is clear that the area of focus for many businesses is around topics such as online content creation, social media and SEO.

Source: https://bit.ly/2HcN3ha

Whether you target customers locally or worldwide, digital marketing allows the opportunity to reach your audience wherever they are. You can track your campaigns and see what is working and how you should be spending your money to optimise results.

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