With lots of opportunities to advertise online, it may seem like real world advertising is obsolete. But that's not true. In addition to figuring out your target market, you have to consider what mix of online advertising and real world advertising makes sense for you.
Newspapers and magazines are classic ways to advertise your business, and ads in them are still effective. With the number of niche newspapers and magazines out there, one might be a perfect fit for your brand. If you have a coffee house, advertising in a university newspaper would be a great idea, BUT advertising in a national magazine isn’t going to be helpful.
There are some great advantages to advertising in a newspaper:
- The reach that newspapers have is astounding. Research from Scarborough Research shows that about one-third of Americans read a newspaper or visit a newspaper's website regularly during an average week. Although you may want to check with your local papers to see what their readership is.
- When it comes to printed media, direct mailers are often thrown away without being read, newspapers are picked-up with the intent of going through them.
- Newspaper advertising is affordable and can be arranged to meet your budget. Ad space differs in size from small ads with room for only a few lines to entire pages in some places.
- Because papers are printed daily, sometimes weekly, the option to change an ad on the fly can usually be handled in a matter of days.
- With advertising space in different sections of a newspaper you can aim your advertising towards an ideal demographic.
But there are downsides too:
- Your ad may be looked over if not large enough. And larger ads cost most money.
- Having an ad in a particular paper may detract potential buyers.
Now, lets talk billboards. If you have a single brick and mortar store then you will likely want to keep the billboard just up the road from your location. But, with multiple locations, you can place them elsewhere in your town. With an online business, you can get space close to where you would expect your demographic to regularly go to. If you are selling items to be added to a buyer's car, then setting up a billboard near an auto mall would be ideal.
Some advantages are...
- You can likely place the ad where it will have the most impact, like around the corner from your shop.
- With the size of a billboard, and its location along roadways, you know many people are going to see your ad.
But keep a few things in mind...
- Although large, people do not have much time to read them, so you will need to keep any message brief.
- You cannot make quick changes to your advertising.
- Billboards usually mean a long-term commitment, so be sure the add is something you do not think will bother drivers after a week.
Along the same lines as billboards is Transit Advertising. Advertising on a Bus, Taxi, Subway can be a great tool.
Some advantages are:
Some advantages are:
- They are mobile, so a single large ad will be seen all over the city each day.
- It is usually lower in cost then billboards.
- You can gear your advertising to areas where your demographic is more likely to be.
But like all advertising options there are downsides.
- Although mobile, it may move too quickly for people to catch an add on the outside of a mass transit vehicle.
- Like billboards the message has to be brief and cannot be changed easily or quickly.
- There are issues that can take away from your ad such as mud splashing on the side of a bus during a storm, or graffiti .
Finally, lets talk about experimental real world advertising. These are advertising methods, that you see from time to time, but are not common place for businesses.
- Skywriting is going to get noticed, but it will be expensive.
- Sign Spinners are everywhere, but like billboards and transit advertising the message has to be short, BUT they do cost less than both billboards and transit advertising.
Good Luck and Good Sales.
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