You-ARE-Wasting-Your-Money-with-Print-Ads-–-Here’s-Why…

I’ve heard it thousands and thousands of times and its well documented and reported that ‘print’ is DEAD! From local newspapers, to national magazines, industry related rags and many others have collapsed or barely holding on – I get it! It’s a popular thing to say, “Print is Dead,” it can make you feel innovative, forward thinking and even trendy. BUT, take one step back to the headline, replace “Print” with any advertising outlet you’re a customer of and the statement may still be true… if you don’t evaluate your chosen advertising channels.

As an advertiser and a customer, you’re paying for the audience that the magazine, newspaper, website, app, radio, television, billboard, racecar, trade show, or any other advertising investment reaches. That’s it, the audience. Are they reaching your perspective customers? How do you know? In some cases, you won’t know until you try it.

It’s simple! No really, it is. To at least check the basics of any advertising option, but in this case, let’s stick with print. There’s 3 key requests you should ask for, before advertising with any print media or if you haven’t in a while (or ever), your current print advertising outlets:

Can you send me your most recent audit statement or postal receipt?

How do you grow your audience?

How do you scrub your audience?

If these don’t get answered truthfully with proof, don’t donate your money – even if it is ‘cheap.’

Online advertising is popular for many reasons, but the one that is most overlooked is that every specific paid for ad directly tells you how many eyes were reached. Great! Now, apply that to all other advertising focuses, including print.

In short, don’t group all ‘print’ all in one – there’s plenty of print media that wasn’t worth advertising with in the 80’s and 90’s, and that’s still true today. Vet your advertising, ALL ADVERTISING.