If you advertise in your local newspaper regularly or semi-regularly, my tip today is you pause this spend and redirect the funds to Facebook boosted posts or locally targeted Google advertising.
For a few dollars you can test your ad, gauge the return and up the spend if the results are there. My experience is the Facebook posted ad process and results are far superior than local newspaper advertising. But remember my business is in a busy suburban area where a local newspaper ad is expensive and lost in the relatively full local newspaper.
If you do not advertise in the local newspaper or anywhere else then my tip for you is advertise! If you are not doing anything to attract new traffic to your newsagency you are nuts!
Of course, if you pause your local paper advertising, you should expect that the local paper might want to pause doing business with you. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
Many newsagents operate in small and mid-size communities where the local paper and newsagencies are equal in their importance to the community.
Mark’s post reminds me of the farmer who stopped feeding the cow to see how that could save on costs. Unfortunately the animal died before the experiment could be completed.
In hundreds of communities across Australia, the local newspaper is a major driver of customer traffic each week in newsagencies. The local paper is often the top-selling print publication stocked by newsagencies.
In the language of this website, to stop doing business with one of your major suppliers, simply as an experiment, “dis-respects” your business friend. It is folly to think that you will be able to repair that blown-up bridge ‘on demand’.
Ash I did say pause so newsagents could try it and monitor the results. I did not say stop. I also noted that my own business is in a suburban area, a location where the local Leader newspaper is the local paper and where even a $500 spend would not deliver for me a fraction of what a similar spend with Facebook could provide.
The assessment has to be one of value.
As with everything I write here, I expect newsagents will read it and ignore it or act on what is right for their specific circumstances.
Many local papers are free and they expect newsagents to give them away for free. Back years ago when I tracked the basket benefit I found that local paper sales rarely resulted in add-on purchases.
Ash I draw your attention to this sentence in my post: If you do not advertise in the local newspaper or anywhere else them my tip for you is advertise!
Ash, relax its only a suggestion. I think you need to get some sleep. We advertise in our local paper for major seasons but for what a $300 ad costs I could split the costs over 6 ads on Facebook with a $50 spend each and target the specific market I am aiming my products at. Plus Facebook ads are easier to track responses and in my experience they have been more effective in increasing sales.
Ah but if the cow stops producing milk do you keep it ?
I stopped advertising in the local paper 8 years ago, benefit for cost was never equal. Double digit growth each year for the past 8 years, sorry Ash never made a difference to me.