A few weeks ago, someone dropped a bomb on LinkedIN. Within my circle of connections, the post by Jerry Miller created a lot of ripples. Thankfully, many people spoke up and denounced his proclamation that “Print advertising is dead.”
Clearly I don’t agree with Mr. Miller, but I’m not here to badmouth his point of view either. I’m here to offer some facts, which he’s short on in his quick little LinkedIN video. But I’d also like to point out that there are a lot of Jerry Miller’s in your market right now saying the same thing. How are you responding?
There are ‘marketing experts’ parading around offering similar advice in your market! Often times these experts are brought forward by your local chamber of commerce or other organizations. These organizations consider it an opportunity to provide education to their members, and of course the ‘marketing expert’ sees this as a chance to land new customers for their marketing company. Why do they do these free seminars? Because they work.
And because it works, it is time for you to step forward and offer a marketing class for your local chamber, downtown business association or whoever will give you the audience in your market. When you have the audience, give them the real perspective of how a marketing mix of traditional and digital platforms is the best approach for business success.
The principles of marketing and advertising have not changed. What has changed are the options available to convey those messages to potential customers. Increasingly, those new digital options offer never before seen tracking ability to help measure results. The video by Miller harps on the lack of trackability for print advertising. Print can absolutely be tracked. Coupons, QR codes, special offers and specific phone numbers are just some of the options available to someone who is deeply concerned with the performance of a print campaign.
Also, the slide he stands in front of while making that point is titled “The Power of Social Media.” There is definitely value in social media marketing, both organic and paid social media options. But to suggest that money spent on print is thrown away and wasted a huge mistake. Broad, generalized statements like “print is dead” ignore basic marketing principles. The core audience of print products remain the audience with the most disposable income.
I hope you watch the video, and that it serves as a wakeup call. This is a message that is being presented throughout your area, and you and your advertising staff need to know how to combat it. A final suggestion for you; show this video to your sales team. Ask them to role play how they would respond to the statements of Jerry Miller. Only then will you be prepared to combat these views, and win back revenue that might be slipping away from your organization.
