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Advertising on a Budget -- Part 1: Using Print to Drive Traffic Online
This is the first article of a three-part series. I decided to try something a little different and illustrate the marketing challenges of a small business. I'm using one of my clients, PrescottWeddings.com (you can read more about PWC, including a testimonial from the owner of PWC, on my Web site, http://www.writingusa.com) PWC is an online resource guide for couples planning their weddings. Along with a ton of information for brides and grooms, the site includes a resource guide where local businesses can advertise their products and 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 and couples -- essentially at the same time. And if that wasn't bad enough, we had to appeal to each group even though one was dependent on the other -- advertisers wanted brides and grooms logging onto the site, and brides and grooms wanted a complete resource center. 2. Several bridal print publications had come and gone in Prescott -- and 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 and 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 but throughout Yavapai County. So how did we do it? A great Web site with great content (but more on that in a later article) plus three main marketing strategies:1) Using print to drive traffic online2) Thinking small3) Frequency, frequency, frequency I'll cover number two and 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 and 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 and 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 also 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 also its strength. It's a visual medium only, so it requires more effort and interaction from your audience to make an impact (they need to stop and 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 isn't 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, but all the cities around Phoenix, like Scottsdale and Tempe, also 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, and PWC does use them, but they only take you so far. Print is a part of the "real world" -- something you can touch and pick up, not virtual like a Web site. Print has also been around a lot longer, and carries more trust with it. We found by using print, some of that trust and "real world" essence rubbed off, making PWC seem less anonymous and more like a "bricks and 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 and 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 and 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 and how we "thought small" in Part 2. Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.com
MORE RESOURCES: NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) | NAHB National Association of Home Builders Palm Beach tackles development, traffic, parking during winter season Palm Beach Daily News Traffic building — on Vermont roads and at rest-stop bathrooms Local 22/44 News Fire Press Release - March 19, 2024 Anne Arundel County New Orleans’ Municipal and Traffic Court to temporarily relocate following building closure WGNO New Orleans Live eclipse traffic: Here's where traffic is heaviest for the eclipse The Columbus Dispatch St. Louis foot traffic increasing despite condemned building break-ins KTVI Fox 2 St. Louis New CMU building could disrupt Oakland traffic for years NEXTpittsburgh Building Owner Seeks One-Way Traffic on Water Street in Downtown Wheeling Wheeling Intelligencer Road partially blocked and traffic building after crash Yahoo News UK Palm Beach pushes consideration of Paramount Theatre project to July Palm Beach Daily News Hwy 316 crash in Dacula: GDOT 11Alive.com WXIA City councilors propose building a traffic light outside Bellamy School - Western Massachusetts News City councilors propose building a traffic light outside Bellamy School Western Massachusetts News New building plans at West Holmes move to traffic study, location Wooster Daily Record Traffic rerouted in Antigo after partial building collapse Wausau Pilot and Review Queueing traffic building along Silver Jubilee Bridge both ways Runcorn and Widnes World PODCAST: CT is cutting corners, and building traffic circles instead The Connecticut Mirror Building Trust One Traffic Stop at a Time | Bureau of Justice Assistance Bureau of Justice Assistance Updated plan for Paramount Theatre in Palm Beach fails to win over neighbors - Palm Beach Daily News Updated plan for Paramount Theatre in Palm Beach fails to win over neighbors Palm Beach Daily News North Attleborough will detour traffic on Broadway over concern about unstable building - Turn to 10 Traffic detour extended as partial demolition of old mill building in North Attleboro begins Monday Boston 25 News Traffic building up at Ireland’s airports ahead of St Patrick’s Day Airport World Online SpY Transforms a Ghent Building into a Spiny Thicket of Bright Orange Traffic Cones — Colossal Colossal Destruction of building expected to affect traffic FOX21News.com Demolition of building burned in massive First Hill fire to begin as traffic woes continue KIRO Seattle Texas solar eclipse: The big day is finally here San Antonio Express-News Yonkers church building fire causes road closures, traffic diversions in the city News 12 Westchester Will America ever stop building more highways? The Washington Post 18-wheeler crashes into building along I-35 service road, causes major traffic delays KEYE TV CBS Austin White-Spunner on building Gulf Shores air tower Business Alabama Protests, Traffic, Crowds: Court Braces for a Trump Trial Like No Other The New York Times Protesters block traffic in Center City, calling for an end to war in Gaza as part of national A15 demonstrations The Philadelphia Inquirer Salt Lake police arrest parole fugitive accused of fleeing traffic stop, crashing into building KSL.com Traffic lanes mostly reopened at Colfax and Peoria, still impacted by building demolition FOX 31 Denver Traffic building along M62 near Birchwood due to obstruction on road Warrington Guardian CPD: 1 dead after driver fleeing from traffic stop crashes into building WCPO 9 Cincinnati Traffic building up on highways as people travel on Lunar New Year 코리아타임스 Palm Beach neighbors pan Paramount project as council pushes discussion to March Palm Beach Daily News Bridge building in Fife requires traffic shift Tacoma Weekly Driver flees from traffic stop, dies after crashing into Northside building, police say Yahoo! 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