Sales & Marketing Authority, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

Printed media advertising is still a common and important part of many marketing campaigns.  While many are questioning the value in traditional marketing methods, print media still offers one of the most targeted means of reaching a specific group.  There are trade magazines that are industry specific in practically any industry.  Even if businesses no longer use printed media as a way to reach the masses, and only use it to reach highly targeted demographics, there is still considerable value in adding a few print media ads to any marketing campaign.  One of the big questions is how to make those ads effective.  Why do some ads generate immediate responses while other are simply overlooked?  One of the easiest answers to that question is colour. Colour plays a big part in what people see and how they respond.

Don’t Fall into the Camouflage Trap

The human eye can be fooled into not seeing things that blend into their surroundings.  Many animals take advantage of the way optics work to avoid detection in their natural habitats.  Lions fade into the grass of their native Serengeti, and other animals take it even farther like the chameleon.  Chameleons change skin colour to match their backgrounds, rendering them very difficult to locate visually.  When an advertisement is placed, it can become camouflaged due to its surrounding advertisements.  Make sure that your advertisement is visually unique and will stand out regardless of the surrounding imagery.

Using Reverse Colour

A great way to draw the eye, particularly in black and white publications, is through the strategic use of colour reversal.  When colours are reversed it makes the reader look twice.  With black and white advertising, it draws the eye with the suddenly heavy background that pops the image out.  In colour, the unexpected colouring and reverse images produced by the process of reversing the colours often draws the eye.

Using Colour Effectively

The decision as to whether or not to use colour in your print media is also a big one.  The cost of black and white is often substantially cheaper than a full colour ad.  There are also sometimes opportunities to include a single colour instead of simply the black and white version.  In a medium where everything is in colour, like most magazines, a more subdued colour palette can draw the eye.  Work with a graphic designer to determine the best design for each individual print media source you are advertising in.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Traditional marketing avenues are not getting the attention that they have in the past with all of the new areas to exploit online.  However, there are some solid benefits to traditional methods like print media.  Trade magazines and local newspapers are still good places to advertise, provided you are careful about where you spend your money.  In fact, with the growth of online markets, printed media is less expensive than ever, and can reach a very targeted audience.

How to Choose Your Mediums

The first thing to do when looking at printed media is to research readership demographics.  For things like local advertising where you are only looking to engage consumers in your direct area, community newsletters or local papers and guides are a great place to advertise.  If you are looking for a larger coverage area, there are national papers.  For more industry specific targets, magazines are often the best bet.  Trade magazines in specific are a great place to advertise business to business.

Choosing Your Advertisements

Most printed media have several options available when it comes to advertisements.  You will need to debate the value of colour versus black and white, size and placement.  In newspapers, classified ads can be a way to really stretch your marketing budget, but if you have the money to run a more comprehensive campaign, ads placed in the sports, financial and political sections often have the most effectiveness.  Colour definitely draws more interest, but a black, white and red advertisement offers a nice compromise.  The red, or other single colour, can be used to draw the eye to your ad, without the expense of a full colour layout.  Magazines usually include colour printing in the price, so it really becomes an issue of size.  The more ads you buy, the less you pay for each individual advertisement.  Consider buying in bulk to get the best price.

Designing Your Ad

Remember to keep it simple.  The more information you try to pack into a single advertisement, the more difficult it is for readers to respond favourably.  A clear and direct message is best, for any printed medium.

The print may not have the same readership it did a decade ago, but many people still take the time to crack open the paper in the morning, particularly on the weekend.  Do not ignore the potential of a well-designed, clearly directed and strategically placed print ad.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

As the holiday season approaches, businesses are scrambling to make the most of marketing budgets.  Many decisions regarding where to delegate funds have been final for months.  The last few drips and drabs in the budget need to be used effectively to help combat falling sales.  The current economic turmoil is having a negative effect on businesses world wide.  If you have been experiencing difficulty with rising costs and slowing sales, then you need solid marketing that doesn’t cost a lot.  Worry not, there are opportunities that you can pursue that are either inexpensive or free to businesses.  Below are two ways to market your business for little to no money

1.       Classified Advertising – Saturation is Key

Classified advertising is available in both traditional print media and via online classified sites.  Online classified advertising is usually free, so it never hurts to spend a bit of time posting ads.  Local print media offerings also have classified advertisements.  Magazines and newspapers usually have a section devoted to classifieds.  Getting noticed in these sections can be the hard part.  While classified advertisements are much less expensive than traditional ads, to get the same effect you really need to saturate the section.  A single classified ad can get lost in the wall of text, so you need to purchase multiple ads spread out through the page.  Purchasing ten per paper is a good start.  Even with the increased number of ads, it is often less expensive to pursue classifieds when compared to regular print ads.

2.       Press Releases – Free Exposure is Good Exposure

Another great way to get the word out about your company is with press releases.  This marketing opportunity is absolutely free.  All you need to do is generate a list of contacts for local media sources and regularly submit information.  If you can get noticed on the news or other local media outlet, you have gotten tremendous exposure in return for the thirty minutes it took to generate a press release.  The important thing to remember when writing a press release is to keep the language exciting and the information fresh.  While a certain amount of information repetition is inevitable and necessary, make sure that the thrust of each release changes and that new information is provided.

Utilised properly, both of these methods can be incredibly helpful in spreading the word about your company.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Mass postal mailings still have their place in today’s marketing landscape.  Although it is less expensive to send out email blasts, they do not provide the same result.  If you send out a mass mailing using printed media you will get a much better response rate.  While email blasts should also be sent out on a regular basis, it is important to recognise the different types of information that should be sent via mail versus in a digital format.  It is also important to remember that many people will never see your email as it will be picked off by spam filters.

• Printed Media will Be Seen

Mass mailings have a relatively low response rate, typically less than ten percent of the people to whom you are mailing will place an order, but that is still significantly greater than the response rate to email.  When you send out email blasts most people never see them.  Routine marketing emails quickly get marked as spam and shunted directly to the spam folder.  Many users never look at their spam folder before emptying the content.  It may be less expensive to use email marketing, but there are still expenses, and the limited number of orders that will result make it something of a lottery.  Printed media on the other hand, will be seen at least once.  When it arrives someone must pick it up and glance at it before tossing it in the recycling.  You have an opportunity to capture a sale with that glance.

• Appealing Covers are Critical to Direct Mail

Though most people decide in less than a second whether to keep a catalogue or other marketing mailing, they still have to at least take a brief look.  Companies have an opportunity to show their best to a potential client.  On the cover of whatever mailing you design there should be colour content that is appealing, and great sales advertised. A strong cover will get the recipient to open the brochure or catalogue.  Don’t mail too often or recipients will grow bored with your offerings.  An annual catalogue is of much more interest than one that is seen every month.

• Email Blasts Have their Place

Email blasts should be sent out with information that is current and product specific.  Don’t try to get an entire catalogue on one page.  Too much information in a single email means that it is more likely to get deleted without really being perused.  Instead of sending out daily or even weekly sale notices, consider a monthly campaign.  If you do more frequent emails make sure that they are short and concise.  Keep longer emails to no more than once a month.  Also, keep in mind that an email is not the same as a retail shelf.  Every inch of space doesn’t need to be crammed full.  There is no actual limit to the number of emails that you can send, so make them a little easier on the eyes.

No marketing strategy should be limited to one tool.  Both online and printed mail are still great opportunities to successfully market your products and services.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker