Is print media still an effective channel for increasing traffic to a website?
I want to increase traffic to my website, but I'm not sure of the best marketing channels. Is utilizing the internet better than using other media sources such as print i.e. newsletters, newspapers, magazines?
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Apr 27, 2015
Whatever you do, put your web site address and e-mail address on all printed materials you hand out or post - business cards, brochures, fliers, posters, letterhead stationary, signs (both at your location and signs you would use at an event such as a trade expo), chamber of commerce directories, and just about everything else you print for your business.
Apr 15, 2015
Happy to share my insights in regards to the benefits of an integrated digital advertising approach. email hello (at) visibilitii.com and we can chat from there Joe.
Mar 12, 2015
No question print is very powerful. How effective depends on many things. The value of any medium depends on the product or service being sold, the quality of the ad, the type of message, the target audience and the distribution channel. And some messages need more reach while others need more frequency. For example, one full page ad can be more or less effective than 4 quarter page ads.
As evidence of print power, we recently did a split media campaign to get architects to go to our our clients website and join their email list. We did a direct mail to 1400 architects with one sign up address and ran web ads on Google and banner ads on two architect magazine websites with a different sign up address. All tolled, the web campaign had over 800,000 impressions, but resulted in less than one sixth of the responses we had from the 1400 direct mail pieces.
If you are still not convinced, consider this: One of the biggest world-wide annual spenders on direct mail advertising is Google. If they love print, why wouldn't you?
Mar 12, 2015
Direct mail is a great way to drive traffic to your website and 4-color post cards are inexpensive. Also, direct mail is the best way to target your audience and is easily trackable unlike other print media. Also, the attention span for a nice 4-color postcard is 1000 times longer than a email blast.
Mar 12, 2015
Choice of media channels has more to do with market and customer segment you are primarialy looking to pursue with your product and services. Do not buy into the hype about supporting all media channels to trumpet your product and service offering. The average US business spends 10.5% of revenue on marketing and advertising. If you are unable to achieve a 5x to 10x ROI over a three to five year forecast projection; time to re-access and pivot your marketing and advertising dollar placement channels.
Mar 12, 2015
Print media is not going away but it is transitioning, where you can read a newspaper on a tablet.
Can you increase web traffic yes, it all is based on the content and the value proposition.
Mar 11, 2015
Print is still a useful channel but it's not worth what it used to be and it depends on how you use it.
Marketing today is about helping your customers buy from you so the channels you choose should support that. You need to choose the channels you use based on the customers you want to get. Where are they, how do they consume media and how do they shop. When you figure that out, then you will have a better idea of what channels you should use.
Getting an article published in a print magazine is much better than buying an ad in the same magazine. Print needs to be used in context and focused on helping your buyer personas.
Depending on your business, a good use of print could be creating an industry magazine or being published in one. For example, the Content Marketing Institute publishes CCO. It's targeted at marketing leaders and helps them with content marketing. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/chief-content-officer/
John Deer, the farm company has been using print very successfully for over a century with their magazine Furrow: https://www.deere.ca/en_US/industry/agriculture/our_offerings/furrow/furrow.page
They have a very large focused and loyal subscriber base.
So yes, print is still useful but how you use it must be inline with how your target buyer personas shop, learn and buy.
Hope that helps.
Mar 7, 2015
It could be it depends. On the format of the website.. Print, definitely goes towards your creditablly. And that is what you should strive for. Becoming the best in your field
Mar 7, 2015
Dear Joe,
Every media has its target audience , There are still so many people who are very busy in there schedule they read the news papers , magazines while they are traveling or when they are having a bit time in there busy schedule.
As per me yes it is an effective channel and have its own relevance.
Regards
Lavakush
Mar 5, 2015
I'm going to go against the general consensus here, and say that printed media can absolutely be as effective - if not MORE effective - than digital.
The important word in that last sentence is *can*. To expand on that, there are a number of questions and considerations to take into account.
- Without knowing who your target audience is you may well be wasting your time and your money using printed materials - or maybe not. Print, just like digital, social or anything else, lends itself to a certain buyer profile. There's no such thing as the "best" marketing channel: only the "best" for a particular audience, at a particular time.
- Listing newspapers, magazines, etc. as your examples leads me to believe that you're thinking about advertising, rather than marketing. Unless you have a large budget and a captive audience, then I would advise against traditional advertising - whether print OR digital.
- Unless you're a B2C organization with a huge potential audience, then smaller, extremely-targeted marketing initiatives will usually be more effective than a blanket "spray-and-pray" approach. This holds true regardless of what communication media you use.
- Whether using print or digital, if you're simply going to add your website's homepage URL to your communications you WILL be wasting your time and money. Consider crafting a unique landing page that expands on the campaign in terms of message, content, and design.
Over the past 18 months we've seen a resurgence in clients wanting to use print for their direct communications. Why? Because feedback has shown that physical communications are becoming more noticed and being read more often, in a world of over-stuffed Inboxes and incessant SPAM.
Is it more work? Certainly.
Is it more expensive? Absolutely.
Are the take-up numbers higher? Definitely.
But - as I say - it depends on your particular audience's expectations on how they prefer to receive your message.