The newspaper business is in turmoil and print advertisement revenue is down overall, or so you may have heard. The real situation is a slightly different. Newspapers are not exactly going out of business. Rather, the papers are struggling to turn a profit in the age of the Internet. Print ads revenue, however, has been on the decline for some time as print newspaper circulation has declined. Does this mean that small businesses should no longer bother with advertising in newspapers and magazines? Not quite, say our Global Resources LLC expert consultants.

The cardinal rule of marketing is optimally using channels that offer the best returns for the investment. A company should never judge the usefulness of any advertising channel on generic factors alone. A soda company might find that placing print ads in papers is no longer directly in demand as it once did before the rise of digital journalism. However, a local realtor might find the situation exactly the opposite. Whether print ads can benefit your small business, or not, depends on the nature of your small business.

The advertising power of print ads is measured against the power of online ads like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Google Ads, for example, has the power to deliver your marketing message to millions around the world. That’s only the potential. Whether your marketing message actually reaches the intended audience is another matter. If your small business markets to an international audience, a channel like Google can be extremely lucrative if the right parameters for distribution are chosen. On the other hand, if the target audience for your small business is domestic, then Google may not deliver good results as you might think.

For example, a small town rental business can easily reach the target audience by advertising in local papers. If the rental business wants to reach outsiders, like tourists, then a channel like Google can be used. It’s best to utilize both channels to enjoy the best return on investment.

It’s also important to understand the audience for the newspaper or the magazine. Who reads the print medium? Most local folk would read the local newspaper. Niche audiences will read special print mediums like magazines. Print ads can still be quite powerful if your target audience overlaps with that of the print media. Print ads also work best with certain age groups, like the elderly, that are not quite tech savvy as the younger generations.

Therefore, don’t be too quick to dismiss print ads. If you want to find out if your business can benefit from print ads, ask us at GR-US.com.