**Just a Quick Note** Welcome to Part VI of the Marketing Expertise six part small business marketing series…
Back From the Dead: 5 Print Media Marketing Vehicles Guaranteed to Make Your Small Biz’nass POP!!!
And now… Part VI – Discover How Print Ads Can Rock Your Small Business Marketing Efforts
Similar to the last installment in our humble series – Selling In Print: The Fine Art of the Sales Letter – print ads featured in physical publication also harken back to the Sesame Street classic: “one of these things is not like the other…” in that all of the print media profiled thus are delivered directly (in one fashion or another) to your prospect or customer.
Business cards, postcards, tri-fold brochures and sales letters are either handed or mailed directly to clients or prospects. Print ads, however, are not “direct injected” into consumers hands or mailbox. Instead, they appear in magazines, newspapers, trade publications, newsletters and other periodicals, and rely on placement and context to “get noticed.”
Print Ad Advantages
Newspaper, magazine and trade publication circulation is down in the dumps – having reached all-time lows across the board. The rocket-rise of Web 2.0 and the social web has completely changed the game. Competition is boundless, with…
- A seemingly endless supply of news and media blogs and other online portals (big and small) and their instant update power.
- Kindle, Nook and iPad eReader devices.
- Constant information sharing on multiple social media platforms.
Print media’s once exclusive dominion over the news and long form content distribution world is gone.
Down as the may be, print publications are not out. Have you strolled by a newsstand lately? While certain titles may come and go, and the thickness of individual issues has definitely decreased, there are more magazines than ever. And after falling sharply for a number of years, newspaper (both the local and national level) circulation has stabilized. In short, a lot of people still read the magazines and newspaper…
In turn, this “New World Order” in the print publication realm has created two distinct advantages for advertisers:
- Statistics show (revealed by studies quoted in both Fast Company and Inc Magazine) readers spend an average of 60% longer consuming physical print publication than they do with blogs, online media outlets and eReader news and magazine applications. Once again, the tactile nature print media that you can physically hold in your hand wins out over its digital counter-parts.
- The dearth of print publication advertising (which accounts for most magazines and newspapers being 2/3 thinner than a decade prior) means you’re facing less competition and have much more of a change to stand out and “get noticed” in the publication where you advertise.
Print Ad Drawbacks
High $$$ – Cutting to the chase: cost is still the biggest barrier to print advertising for most small businesses.
National and region publication, even many trade publications, charge thousands of $$$ for full page ads. Even ¼ column classified cost hundreds of $$$. Many publications, both local and national, offer “remnant space” ads, in which you able to bid a minimum price for “unfilled” ad space, but whether or not your ad runs all depends upon the remaining “remnant” space.
Tougher to Target – Because the costs involved are so high, targeting becomes an enormous issue. Placing an ad in a publication read and trusted by your consumer base is the key to capitalizing on the all-important “getting noticed” aspect of print advertising.
Media Research Required – This makes a complete understanding of circulation, reach and readership demographics imperative to your ad’s success. A local business serving a specific area obviously has an advantage because most local consumers read community focused publications to stay on top of local news. The audience for larger publication and some trade publication, however, is less obvious. If you’re considering this type of advertising, it’s definitely worthwhile to ask your ad sales rep if they’ll put you in touch with other advertisers to find out well their ads performed.
Assessment Time
It’s up to you to weigh the pros and cons, but keep in mind many businesses continue to flourish using print advertising as their primary marketing vehicle.
Crafting an Effective Print Ad
If you’re going the DIY route in creating your ad, you certainly need to be a reasonably competent writer, with the ability communicate clearly and coherently in writing. But you don’t necessarily need to be a professional copywriter to write a successful Ad. Just as with sales letters (or any other promotional writing), the real secret sauce is passion. If you’re truly passionate about your biz, and funnel that passion into your ad, it’s apt to be as effective as a professional copywriter’s work.
Print Ad Components
**Quick Editor’s Note** Print ads come in all sizes, ranging from the afore mentioned full page ad, all the way to 1” x 1” classified ads. For the purpose of our discussion here, the following description pertains to a full page ad.
Believe it or not, there’s a very basic formula behind writing an effective print ad…
- Headline
- Lead
- Story
- Bullets
- Close (Includes the Offer & Call to Action – CTA)
This doesn’t mean to imply that creating an effective ad is easy, but by following this structure, you’re definitely headed in the right direction.
One Message
But before we dig into this formula, in fact before you even begin writing and design your ad, you need to consider your ultimate goal. Prospects are apt to be confused if you hit them with too many directives. Settle on one clear goal that you hope to achieve with your ad, i.e. whatever action you hope to motivate your prospect to take, and then craft your ad to achieve that goal.
The Headline
A print ad headline serves one purpose: Get your prospect to read the first sentence of the ad’s body copy.
The Lead (or Intro)
The first sentence of the body copy serves one purpose: Get your prospect to read the next line of the body copy…and so on down the line until the ad’s lead or intro hooks the reader’s attention, and “sells” them on the product or services relevance to their wants, needs and desires.
The Story
Once your lead hooks your prospect’s attention, you present them with a problem, scenario, situation or “story” behind your product or service – and explain why it can help your prospect do whatever it is they need.
Bullet Points (Features & Benefits)
You’ve caught your prospects attention and engaged their interest. Now it’s time to cultivate their desire, so you hit ‘em with your best bullet points.
Bullet points are used to present you product or service’s features, coupled with an explanation of how those features benefit your prospect – because that’s all they care about. Nobody cares how great (you think) you and your business are, they only care about how you can help them.
If your product makes process x run faster – the benefit to your prospect is saving time and money.
If your service handles a task more efficiently than your prospect could on their own – the benefit to your prospect is saving them time and freeing them up to handle other tasks more relevant to their business.
The Close
The close is where you present your “offer” and issue your “Call to Action” (CTA).
This is our product or services.
This how it can help you.
And this is the cost – buy TODAY!
Now depending on your situation, your ad may not include a price, because of the pricing structure or purchase options involved.
But even if you goal is simply to generate interest or move a prospect on to the next level of the sales funnel, you ad must include a call to action…
- Contact you for more info
- Visit your website and sign up for your newsletter
- Buy your product
- Contract for your service
I’ve said the same thing in every installment of this series, but it’ so important that it bears repeating: As simple, silly and cheesy as these phrases may sound, countless studies show CTAs work. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know your prospects intention.
Design
Well-designed print ad includes six basic elements:
A clean, clear, uncluttered layout with ample white space – Less is more, and jamming your ad with too much info, filling up every inch of white space not only looks terrible, it’s confusing and turns your prospect off, turning them away from you ad.
Ad copy presented in a highly visible and easy to read font – If a prospect has trouble reading your super unique attention grabbing font choice, odds are they won’t waste their time trying to read the whole ad….
Graphics that support the ad copy – The images you select for your ad should support your ad’s intent: an ad for a mortuary probably should feature a group of happy-go-lucky souls partying down.
Clear and easily discernible CTAs – You want to be sure your prospects know what you want them to do, so make sure you CTAs are obvious and easy to grasp.
What About You?
Have you used print ads in newspapers, magazine or other publication to market your business? If so, have they proven successful? If you’ve never used print advertising, why not?
Talkback: give us the low down on how print advertising has helped or hindered you small business marketing efforts.
This entry concludes the Back From the Dead: 5 Print Media Marketing Vehicles Guaranteed to Make Your Small Biz’nass POP!!! Series. Hope you’ve found it informative and interesting, or at least not boring.
p.s. If you need a hot print ad that rockets your biz to the “next level,” reach out to Marketing Expertise. I’ll help you source the ideal publication for your business and craft a print ad that will have prospects bangin’ down your door!
Ryan Anys: 310.466.7898 | ryananys@designexpertise.net
p.p.s. If this installment of the Market Expertise print media series spoke to you, by all means, check out the prior installments…
Discover The Small Business Marketing Power of a Well Designed Business Card
Power Up Your Small Business Marketing With a “Handy” Postcard
The Brochure: Small Business Marketing’s Print Media Friend
Selling In Print: The Fine Art of the Sales Letter
