Is Newspaper Advertising Dead?
I’m old enough to remember helping my attorney clients develop killer ads for….
…wait for it…
…. The YELLOW PAGES.
While we no longer do that in this business, some of my clients have similar concerns about running ads in the newspaper. They will flat out ask me… “Laura Lee…does anyone even READ the paper anymore?!”
The answer as of today is: IT DEPENDS.
For starters, knowing whether YOU should be looking at the paper as a source of advertising depends on getting REALLY CLEAR about who your target audience is.
Seniors and boomers still absolutely read the papers. My clients who host elder law or estate planning seminars consistently get strong responses from ads and inserts that they run. I also have clients who do probate work who get great results running ads near the obituary section.
If your target audience is younger… say parents with minor kids… I still wouldn’t count the paper out altogether.
While you may not want to run ads in the traditional “print” version… many of the papers will also run smaller community sections (e.g. a special section for parents), and quite a few are even sent out in the community for free. These smaller publications can be an excellent source of new business and the advertising rates are usually much cheaper than running an ad in the full paper.
You may also be offered the opportunity to mail to the paper’s email list in addition to placing an ad, which again can help reach people who consume content ONLINE but don’t actually subscribe to the physical paper.
Finally, I still REALLY LIKE independent community publications. I find gems all over the place—housing associations will create their own “monthly digest,” a lot of towns have their own small print papers that are sent in the mail for free to homeowners, and there are always indy papers that you might see hanging around your local coffee shop or the grocery stores that people actually read cover to cover.
Again, rates to run ads in these smaller papers are usually cheap…but they get more eyeballs than you might imagine!
The bottom line is that newspaper advertising is NOT out of date like the yellow pages… yet.
You’ll still be able to juice up leads for your firm via the paper, provided that you get very clear about your target audience and you create an ad that will cause the reader to take ACTION.
If you have questions about how to accomplish either of these things—talk to me before you spend a penny. I’d be happy to give you some tips and help point you in the right direction.