Local community magazines like ours are an important medium used by people in business to deliver advertising messages. One of the great things about local magazines in general is that they are typically read by highly interested audiences because they are specific to the area in which they live and the events and services that they might wish to access. The look, imagery, and the convenience of having it sitting on the work surface or coffee table can also provide for repeat exposures to an advert over time.
National magazines can be costly and unless you are organised with your marketing strategy, long lead times might be a challenge. Lead times are much shorter in local magazines than national of course, although still by no means instant – and you’ll probably get to know the editor personally too who will quickly become familiar with your business and can make suggestions about your advertising budget and how to get the most out of it.
With any marketing plan you must measure your ROI and consider the demographic you reach and require. While your brand may be aligned with the overall demographics of a particular magazine not everyone who has the magazine will see your ad. With social media, you can hyper-target by multiple demographics such as location, age, gender, and ‘a love for knitting’ (for example), so this can be a great option for niche marketing with a larger geographical target area.
Some would argue that number of ads in a typical local print publication limits your ad’s potential to be seen. But on social media there is more and more advertising and users are becoming savvy at how to block certain ads or or close-down the visibility of them.
Not everyone makes a purchase the first time they see or hear about your product or service, so the more different ways they hear about you the better. With a magazine ad you need to be consistent and not just rely on a one-off. People seeing you regularly in their local magazine will always know where to find your contact details when they do need you.
Measurement is key too. After your magazine ad goes live, you are sure to keep an eye out for a spike in business, assuming that any increase is a result of the ad – particularly if you have added an excellent call to action. Don’t forget though that your advert may have the result of sending people to your website or social media in the first instance, they won’t all ring you up and say they saw your advert in their local magazine, but that doesn’t mean that your advert hasn’t led to enquiries!
If you’re still confused about whether it will work for you, then please get in touch. I’ll be happy to look at your options with you and help you come up with a plan.