For the average person, there is a myth that all young people (Millennials and younger) bypass the printed media and only use digital information. But in a 2013 report done by the Newspaper Association of America, approximately 68 percent of people ages 18 to 24 read printed newspaper advertisements. Not only do they read the printed newspaper advertisements, but they admit to taking action because of those advertisements as well. It would seem that the notion that offline marketing no longer matters is extremely premature.
If you read that NAA infographic even further, you see that six out of every 10 Millennials trusts the information that is printed in their local newspapers. That means that if you can get press releases about your business printed in the local newspapers of your target geographic audience, then you will increase the chances of getting more traffic to your website and increasing revenue.
Consumers usually only buy from companies they trust and it looks like local newspapers are good places to establish that trust. The truth is that local newspapers have been doing quite well in print and online and present themselves as a viable marketing option for any company. But it is still hard to ignore the impact that offline marketing in local newspapers has on an audience.
The generations that grew up with newspapers and print media have not totally abandoned those mediums for the digital world. There is still that feeling of legitimacy that older consumers get when they see a print advertisement for a company and that can only help to enhance your digital marketing.
With the information given in the NAA infographic, we can then conclude that offline marketing still matters to a large portion of the consumer world. To ignore offline marketing because it may seem old fashioned is to go against what consumers are saying. To grow your business, you need to look to offline marketing to help enhance and even legitimize your online marketing efforts.
Many local newspapers offer package deals that give your company offline and online marketing options for a discounted price. The Poynter.org website points out that for the first time in decades, subscription revenue has outpaced advertising revenue for newspapers. That means that more people are paying to read then news than advertisers are paying to sell products. That is a significant shift that cannot be ignored, especially when 68 percent of Millennials are reacting to printed newspaper advertising.
The costs associated with offline marketing are being more than justified by the data and the results. More people than ever are paying to read the news in both printed and digital formats. That means that the money you invest in offline marketing is money well spent and will help to enhance whatever marketing you are doing online.
There may come a day, many decades from now, where digital marketing is the only way that publishers reach their audiences. But the data suggests that we are a long way off from that day and that print media is still very strong. If you want to have a well-rounded marketing program, then you need to utilize offline marketing to reach the people who are willing to look at your printed marketing and react to it immediately.
