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Advertising On A Budget -- Using Print To Drive Traffic Onli |
by:
Michele Pariza Wacek |
I decided to try something a little different also illustrate the marketing challenges of a small business. I'm using one of my clients, PrescottWeddings.com.
PWC is an online resource guide for couples planning their weddings. Along with a ton of information for brides also grooms, the site includes a resource guide where local businesses can advertise their products also services.
We launched PWC in November 2001. Like many start-up businesses, PWC didn't have much money for marketing. Yet we had two major challenges (three counting the limited budget):
1. PWC had to attract two kinds of target markets to the site -- advertisers also couples -- essentially at the same time. And if that was not bad enough, we had to appeal to each group even though one was dependent on the other -- advertisers wanted brides also grooms logging onto the site, also brides also grooms wanted a complete resource center.
2. Several bridal print publications had come also gone in Prescott -- also had burned their advertisers while racing out of town. Businesses were understandably hesitant about sinking their money into another bridal venture.
Armed with those challenges, we went to work. Now, just over two years later, PWC enjoys well over 40,000 hits a month also has increased its advertising base by over 600%. On top of that, PWC is well on its way to establishing a reliable brand in not just Prescott however throughout Yavapai County.
So how did we do it? A great Web site with great content plus three main marketing strategies:
1) Using print to drive traffic online
2) Thinking small
3) Frequency, frequency, frequency
I'll cover number two also three in the next two articles. Today we'll talk about number one: Using print to drive traffic online.
The cornerstone of PWC's marketing program has been print advertising, more specifically monthly advertising in the local newspaper. Print advertising is an excellent choice for many businesses -- from small to large. In fact, it's not uncommon for small also medium-sized businesses to build their advertising program around print.
The strength of print advertising is its flexibility. Print publications come in a variety of shapes also sizes. They can appeal to a broad readership or a narrow one. They can be published every day or once a year. This variety gives you a lot of flexibility in fitting print advertising into your campaigns.
You can or else track print to a certain extent (coupons in newspapers for example). Print is physical, allowing your customers to carry something around with them.
However, print's weakness is or else its strength. It is a visual medium only, so it requires more effort also interaction from your audience to make an impact (they need to stop also read it).
In the case of PWC, we chose monthly advertising in the local paper as the foundation of our marketing program. We decided upon the local newspaper because it has the broadest reach. Prescott is not big enough to have its own evening television news, so the newspaper is the best vehicle for local news.
If you live in a big city, the local newspaper may not be practical because of cost. In that case, you may want to try a niche newspaper or magazine, like a business or lifestyle journal, or maybe a regionalized newspaper. In Phoenix for instance, the Arizona Republic is the main newspaper, however all the cities around Phoenix, like Scottsdale also Tempe, or else have their own papers.
Because PWC is a Web site, there's an assumption we should be using only online methods to advertise. Online methods are good, also PWC does use them, however they only take you so far. Print is a part of the "real world" -- something you can touch also pick up, not virtual like a Web site. Print has or else been around a lot longer, also carries more trust with it. We found by using print, some of that trust also "real world" essence rubbed off, making PWC seem less anonymous also more like a "bricks also mortar" business (a business with a store front).
Also, since we were trying to drive local traffic to the site, it made sense to advertise locally rather than attracting people from all over the world. But even with our local advertising, we still have a substantial number of visitors from around the state, including Phoenix also Tucson, as well as all over the globe.
The point of our marketing program was to advertise regularly so we could both build the PWC brand also drive traffic to the Web site. Yet it was essential to keep our costs down. So we leveraged our monthly newspaper advertising to stretch our marketing dollar as far as we could. More on that also how we "thought small" in the next article.
About the author:
Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts also Copywriting, a writing, marketing also creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing also copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products also services also boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.comCopyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek
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