With “digital” being the biggest buzzword of the twenty-first century, ignoring print media is only natural, especially for new retail stores. Many businesses avoid print advertising because it is costly and difficult to track.

However, advertising your company in reputable newspapers and magazines can be extremely effective in reaching out to new audiences and driving engagement.

Let’s talk about why print media is important for retail businesses in 2021 and how you can use it to grow your business.

Should Retailers Invest in Print Media in 2021?

To answer the question, “Is print media still relevant for retail stores in 2021?” The answer is a resounding YES, and it is unlikely to become obsolete. Where there is a physical customer experience, print media will be relevant and valuable.

Consider the following. Have people ceased to read newspapers and magazines? Have brochures outlived their usefulness? While the majority of information is now consumed online, print media is not going away.

Furthermore, print media isn’t just for brick-and-mortar stores. Amazon, the world’s leading eCommerce company, readily places advertisements in newspapers in order to reach a larger audience.

Furthermore, because every retail business advertises online, the digital advertising space is crowded. By utilising print advertising, you can differentiate yourself from the competition and reach consumers through a new channel.

So, yes, print media is still relevant for retailers in 2021. However, it is not the same as it was previously. Running stand-alone advertisements may not be as effective. Almost 80% of smartphone users make an online purchase at least once every six months. Because mobile has become the new shopping platform, your print ads must complement your digital advertising campaigns.

QR codes are excellent at bridging the online-offline divide. You can use a QR Code generator to generate a custom QR code, which you can then include in a newspaper or magazine ad and link to your website, landing page, or product page. As a result, you can use print ads to supplement your digital marketing campaigns and achieve better marketing results.

The Benefits of Print Media and Advertising

Now that we’ve established that print media is still relevant, let’s look at the key advantages of using print media in your business.

Create a Reputation and Relationship

The most obvious advantage of print media advertising is that it facilitates reputation development and relationship building. When you appear in a reputable newspaper or magazine, your credibility skyrockets. As a result, if you want to build a reputation in a local community, print media is a highly effective strategy.

Marketing at a Low Cost

While print advertising isn’t as cheap as Google display ads, it’s still a good deal. Moreover, unlike digital strategies that necessitate extensive optimization, print media advertisements are simple to implement and execute. All you have to do is create an eye-catching advertisement and submit it to the advertiser.

Most retail businesses supplement their digital advertising strategies with TV ads and digital signage, which can be costly, particularly in competitive markets. Print media advertising is a low-cost option that can help you boost your advertising efforts without breaking the bank.

Long Product Shelf Life

Another significant advantage of print media is its long shelf life. There is no guarantee that the same user will see your digital ad again. As a result, users are likely to forget about your brand. TV commercials are persistent, but they cannot be run indefinitely unless you have a massive advertising budget.

Print advertisements have the longest shelf life. Magazines are kept for months or years by people who enjoy reading them. This means your brand has multiple opportunities to reach your target audience. The same is true for newspapers. People keep a newspaper for at least a day, so your ad is likely to be seen more than once.

And the more frequently a user interacts with a brand, the more likely they are to convert. According to marketing principles, a prospective buyer must see or hear a brand’s marketing message at least seven times before making a purchase.

Control over Appearance and Positioning

Another significant advantage of print advertising is that you have complete creative control over how it appears. You have control over its size, placement, typography, and other aspects. In digital advertising, you do not have the same level of control.

If you use display ads, Google will place your ad on any website that meets its criteria. You will have no control over how your ad appears or how large or small it is. This significantly reduces the effectiveness of your advertisements.

Improved Attention Span

The human attention span has been decimated by the digital age. The average human attention span is eight seconds, which is nearly the same as that of a goldfish. The main cause of this declining attention span is information overload – having too much information. As a result, when marketing yourself online, you only have eight seconds to catch people’s attention.

Print media, thankfully, has longer attention spans than digital media. People prefer to read printed materials slowly and thoroughly rather than skimming through them as they do on online platforms.

Non-intrusive and engrossing

How many times have you seen an advertisement online and felt good about it? People despise online advertisements. In fact, nearly 800 million internet users – or 17% of all internet users – use ad-blocking software. As a result, when you run an ad online, there is a 17% chance that an ad-blocking tool will block it. That is clearly a waste of your advertising dollars.

Print media advertisements are not intrusive and have no negative impact on the user experience. And if your advertisement is interesting, it can elicit immediate action. QR codes can be included in your ads to allow readers to connect with your brand instantly.

Local Targeting That Works

Finally, if you want to reach a local audience, print media advertising is ideal. Assume you’ve just opened a new retail store and want to reach out to potential customers in your area. You can reach a large local audience in less time by placing ads in local newspapers. Print advertising is one of the most efficient methods of reaching a highly targeted audience.

How Can Print Advertising Help Increase Brand Awareness and Sales?

Print media advertising for your retail store has numerous advantages. But where do you begin?

Here are six pointers to help you make your print media advertising campaigns more effective.

Locate the Best Publications

When investing in print advertising, the most important factor to consider is the publication with which you work. Make certain that the publication you select has an audience that matches the profile of your target customers. For example, if you are a fashion brand, you must find publications with fashion-interested audiences.

There are numerous niche magazines to choose from. Cosmopolitan is a fashion magazine, the Wall Street Journal is a business and finance publication, and Sports Illustrated is a sports magazine.

Make an effort to add value.

The golden rule of marketing – don’t sell, educate – applies equally to print advertising. Instead of asking people to buy your product, try to educate them on how it can improve their lives.

Streamline Your Message

Print media can be a little pricey. When you find a space in a popular newspaper or magazine, it’s tempting to fill it with as many details as possible. Avoid cramming too much information into your message, and keep it short, to the point, and memorable.

Make use of more visuals and less text.

Here’s an effective tip for keeping your message concise while avoiding information overload. Make use of more visuals and less text. Also, keep your design simple and sticky, with plenty of white space. Choose your colours carefully, and use a clear, bold font that is easy to read.

McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Apple are all well-known for their minimalist advertising campaigns. Remember when McDonald’s ran a campaign to inform people that it has Wi-Fi? The campaign consisted solely of French fries forming a Wi-Fi signal and the McDonald’s logo.

Connect Your Print Campaign to a Bigger Campaign

Running a print media ad as a stand-alone campaign is not a good idea. Make it more effective by incorporating it into a larger campaign. In fact, using advertising channels in isolation is never a good strategy. Print media should complement digital media and vice versa in an integrated advertising strategy.

As previously stated, QR codes can assist you in bridging this gap. QR codes can be placed on print campaigns and linked to landing pages, appointment booking pages, product pages, and so on.

Monitor the Success of Your Campaign

The final piece of advice is to monitor the effectiveness of your print ad campaign. There are several ways to accomplish this. You can closely monitor how your sales have increased since the ad was launched. Tracking direct website visits can also help measure engagement if you sell online. In addition, if you use QR codes in your advertisement, you can track how many times the code has been scanned.

Final Thoughts

Print advertising isn’t going away, and ignoring it means passing up potential opportunities for awareness, engagement, and revenue. If you’re starting a new retail business, make sure you have a print advertising strategy in place to supplement your primary marketing campaign. Also, bridge the online-offline divide and provide your customers with an integrated experience.