Why You Should Still Include Newspaper and Magazine Advertising in Your Marketing Strategy

In an age where almost our entire lives can be lived online, it can be difficult to see how print advertising can still have a place. But print is powerful and can still be a fantastic way to advertise directly to your target audience.

1. Over 37% of consumers trust newspapers as opposed to just 17% who give credibility to social media

Newspaper readers are loyal. There’s a reason they choose a particular newspaper to bring them the news every day, and that reason is trust. By advertising in a long-established publication with a dedicated reader base, you’re automatically adding the credibility of that publication to your brand. Print media still has a weekly readership of 20 million in the UK, meaning that the industry is far from dead.

2. Readers are 152% more likely to pay attention to print ads vs. digital

The prolific nature of the Internet means that browsing through articles, shopping sites or social media is just a natural part of most people’s every day. In contrast, picking up a newspaper or a magazine and taking a few minutes to read is a treat or a luxury. Add to that the fact that a lot of magazines these days are designed for a specific niche market – cooking, crafts, photography, cycling – you name it, there’s probably a magazine for it. So if your business sells a product or service that serves that market, then advertising in a magazine dedicated to it is a direct route to getting it in front of your target audience. And it’s not just specialist magazines that this applies to – if you run a small, local business, then what better place to advertise it than in your local newspaper?

3. People are 77% more likely to remember businesses seen in print compared to online

Combine that with the fact that people are quite willing to go away and search for your website after seeing it mentioned in a print ad, thus driving up web traffic in the same way as might be expected from a digital campaign. You may be thinking that tracking the effectiveness of your print ads is difficult if not impossible, but that’s not the case – have a look at your analytics platform on the days, months or weeks that you have a print ad campaign running, and compare it to a similar period where no ads were live. Chances are, you’ll see an increase in visits to your site from direct entry of your web address, or organic search.

4. Combining your digital ad campaign with print ads can make your online advertising efforts 400% more effective

Ultimately, there is no one solution when it comes to choosing between print and digital advertising. A combination of both print and online media is generally shown to be the best option for most – combining the trust and effectiveness of a print campaign with the convenience of a digital one, as a consumer whose interest may have been piqued by your advert in a printed publication is much more likely to click on a digital ad or an email through to your website to find out more information.

Evidence suggests that digital ads perform better when they are seen by a reader who has previously seen an ad from the same brand in print. Add the recall factor of print ads to the conversions of digital and you’ve got a winning formula.

LOCALiQ is part of Newsquest Media Group, the UK’s largest publisher of local news, with over 200 trusted brands, both in print and online. Take a look at our print advertising page for more information or contact one of our experts today to learn more.