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Why Technology Will Lead to More Print Advertising

Published by Joseph Ferrara (2) April 18th, 2008 in Advertising. Comments

Yep. I’m saying it. Print advertising will rise again. And print media will thank technology for its resurrection. Huh?

My biggest gripe with online real estate companies with VC money (you know who you are) is the almost total lack of interest in using traditional media advertising, especially print, to drive traffic to their websites. The usual reason is the inability to track ROI.  First of all, it is possible to track print media advertising ROI. (Sellsius created a tagged link tool to do this.) Secondly, widespread brand awareness requires a 360° marketing approach (a gecko told me). Our Blog Tour consumer study, albeit shallow and incomplete, indicated a huge disconnect between the online and offline worlds.  Most consumers we interviewed had never heard of the real estate websites we take for granted.  (A woman in Seattle (outside the Zillow offices) thought Zillow was a dance– no kidding).   The brands were simply not where the people were much of the time– outside.  Finally, if you’re advertising offline when you’re competitors are not, you get to swim in a blue ocean.

The Internet is Everywhere.  Are You?

But soon, I predict, the ad money will be pouring back into print. And the reason, I believe, is technology itself. Crazy? Maybe not. Here’s the logic. As the world becomes Wi-fied-ultra-portable-mobile-iPhonish, consumers will be able to easily access online resources from anywhere. If that be the case, consumers can be reading a newspaper, waiting at a bus stop or sitting on a subway, see an ad for your cool online resource, whip out their iPhone, check you out on the spot and sign up. BAM! You just got an eyeball/customer while your competitor is still sitting online, waiting for someone to go to Google, type in the keywords, visit the site (and the others on the first few pages) and stick around to do business with them.   Maybe it’s just me, but the ad connection feels like a comfy one-on-one while the internet experience is a Googlish free-for-all. Compare walking through a convention trade show with all the booths trying to get your attention with a face-to-face meeting in a quiet room.

Whole cities are being wired for the internet. NYC is wiring the subways.  USA Today reported that 28 states have wired their state parks– campgrounds, lodges, etc.   If the net is easily accessible from everywhere, shouldn’t your advertising follow it?

Still believe print ads are dead?  See what the G-men are up to.

Related Post:

Real Estate Myths or What I Did on My Summer Vacation

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  • Amen brother.

    I believe you're right. Not sure when what you believe will happen...when most are walking around with their gadgets poised to engage/consume...but it lurks.

    Thanks for the reminder and thought ping.

    kb
  • Don't let anyone know I said this, but sometimes obsession over tracking and ROI is not healthy.

    Online marketing is awesome for it's tactical, trackable tools and methods. Valuation of print and other broadcast distribution methods were so arcane that having numbers available via analytics seemed so perfect.

    Until people forgot about branding.

    I think you are dead on about increased mobility of consumers increasing the amount of people interacting with print and other "traditional" marketing.

    Tracking performance for print has always been available to diligent sales teams. With web tie-ins (vanity URLs tied to print campaigns, some geo-targeting, etc) you can roll it into your analytics now.

    Awesome post.
  • Internet advertising marketing and marketing strategies can make or break a new or existing business.
  • That was a surprise. Clicking that Google link and seeing a write-up about the benefits of newspaper advertsising.

    You are absolutely correct. We will see a rise in print ads. Either that, or Google's made so much money they are now going crazy trying to figure out how to spend it. lol
  • We at Homegain are listening to Joe.

    HomeGain built its entire business over the last nine years on meticulous search engine marketing and Search engine optimization.

    We probably have better tracking that any company out there. I have massive spreadsheets that track EACH click EACH day and how much we made on each one.

    While we have been successful very few people know who we are!
    One of the problem with running your visitors through google or Yahoo is the visitor finds you but they remember the search engines not where they ended up.

    We are still focused on managing our SEM and SEO campaigns but we are taking some of our marketing dollars and applying them offline.

    Recently we've done post card mailing, Max Mobiles and a HomeSaleMaximzer brochure all designed to raise brand awareness.

    http://www.homegain.com/tool_center/home_sale_m...

    We have also taken a small step into the blogosphere a place where we did not spend much time either.

    Thanks Joe.
  • Louis, I would be interested to learn about the results of your offline marketing efforts. Max is sure to help.
  • joe
    there is the rub. we won't be able to demonstrate results right away.
    you can't do off line advertising with a tracking code and you can't measure word of mouth.

    your redfin example is spot on. Among those of us who spend far too much time online we all know who redfin is.

    Redfin may have wonderful seo and sem too.

    But the user who finds their way to the red fin site may not feel comfortable with using them because they have no offline reference point.

    remax on the other hand has a strong brand that was built offline. their online efforts I would guess even if they are not nearly as well executed as redfin probably produce better results than redfin.
    I can say however in the past year since we started with more offline mktg our homegain.com has increased steadily
  • Louis,

    You may want to take a look at the Sellsius link (a URL tagging tool that works to track visitors from print or other offline advertising).

    http://www.sellsiusrealestate.com/html/popup_se...
  • Joe,

    Checked out the Sellsius link - awesome. That's a good and simple way to track your ROI from print advertising.

    And rather than spending a ton of money on a half or full page ad, you can just take out a small ad that directs people to your site. Branding and promotion of your site/blog - a great combo.

    Great post!
  • Joe,

    I applaud your conviction, honesty and reality. I have first hand experience with this 'trend' and the agents / brokers' approach to the 'trend' of online advertising.

    As a marketing / sales consultant for duPont Publishing, Inc, I interact and talk to THE most successful brokers and agents in the world. I have been in break out sessions with these agents and I have had many lengthy discussions as to 'what works' in advertising. The 'trend' as I keep calling it is in the internet... however, your analysis is spot-on with the trade show.

    How you are perceived is the key element that the web cannot provide. Print ads do. People with money may be flipping through their latest wi-fi handheld, or have a laptop that is connected while aboard the 6,1 or E train going from uptown Manhattan to Wall Street, but this is much like a train connection... just a link to the next stop.

    The brokers (clients) do NOT forsake print media. That is why they are ahead of the game now and will be ahead of the game when the market goes up again. The cream always rises and effective advertising is not always about analysis and ROI, but also about branding; hence print media.
  • Thanks Alex.

    Thanks for checking out our tracking tool, Danilo. I have always admired your progressive attitude and willingness to experiment.
  • Great post! For the last 2 years I've been realizing (& pitching) that print advertising would lead to Internet traffic. It is a lot more difficult to track now - which drives the 'bean counters' absolutely crazy - but I still believe that print (and institutional ads) drive traffic to our site(s).

    Can I absolutely quanttify Not a chance. Do I know that it works? YUP!
  • Thanks Gerry. It nice to hear from folks who speak from experience.
  • Louis,

    Re: Measuring word of mouth

    Though not perfect (no metric really is) you could measure "Branded Keyword Searches" basically any search term that is a permutation of your name (i.e. someone knowing something about you but not knowing what your website is) as well as direct traffic (people who know what your website is).

    That will give you a pretty fuzzy picture, but a vector you can track nonetheless.

    If you wanted to get fancy you could segment that to only include new visitors. Increases in this "word of mouth index" would probably relate to increased word of mouth.

    Incidentally, segment by geography and this could be used to monitor print marketing for those who don't go with a vanity URL or Sellsius link. But the Sellsius link or vanity URL would be significantly better.
  • G.Dewald
    Thanks for the tip. We do check the number of times people search our brand name. The more favorable metric is when people bypass the search engines altogether and visit us directly at http://www.homegain.com
    I think that in some respects you have to let go of tracking when doing a branding push.
  • Louis,

    Agreed re: branding and tracking (as per my first comment above). The value of the branded search metric is that it is more "word of mouthy" in that people sort of kind of know who you are but aren't so familiar or committed that they know what your URL is (does it have a hyphen, is there a funky spelling) or they want to see what other results show up as well (what are others saying about this company I heard about).

    Since you're already tracking branded search and directs, segmenting it to first time unique visitors will greatly increase the accuracy of the metric.

    Again, agreed that it's not solid, but it is something that can be monitored and inform minor actions.

    As people start weaning themselves off the Joy of Analytics in online marketing, discovering and developing ways to give them the same comfort of tracking in their off-line efforts will become increasingly important.
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