We’ve been hearing for years that print is “dead” and digital media reigns. However for B2T, print is still and important medium.
Join Matt Sonnhalter in the next installment of our Marketing Minute series to find out more about why you shouldn’t call time of death of print advertising.
To view other videos from Sonnhalter, visit our YouTube channel here and let us know if there’s a B2T marketing topic you’d like us to cover.
Today we have a guest blog post by Sandy Bucher, Media Engineer at Sonnhalter, sharing advice on how to reach the key people for your message.
If you are a manufacturer and want to reach a certain job title in a particular industry, in a particular market you want to focus on, targeted demographic inserts are another option to the standard print ad and are offered by most publications. Inserts can be one sheet, two-sided and are printed on heavier stock than the publication uses, but can also be a postcard or even a multi-page brochure. The inserts can be bound into, or glued into the publication, depending on the publication’s specifications.
Why inserts?
The purpose of using a targeted demographic insert is that a company can select just those readers they want the message to reach, and the publication will send it only to those selected, rather than sending it to the entire circulation. For an example, if you only want to reach the engineers or the plant operations people, you select just those titles. The cost for placing a targeted demographic insert is generally less than placing a full-run advertisement because you’re reaching fewer people. But you also have to consider the cost of printing the insert. If you’re using a one-page, two-sided insert, remember it’s like placing two ads (you get two pages, more real estate), so that may validate the expense of doing an insert.
Get noticed.
A targeted insert will get noticed. The paper stock is usually different than the paper stock the publication uses, so when flipping through the magazine, the magazine will naturally open to the insert, making the reader stop to see why the magazine keeps opening to that particular section of the magazine. A client of ours that uses the demographic inserts had someone call to voice his displeasure because the magazine kept opening to their insert and he was getting frustrated. But that’s what you want…you want to get noticed and the insert did exactly that for our client.
With all the hype about social media, some marketers are going too far and have started ignoring traditional tools that have served them over the years, primarily PRINT.
Yes, we all should agree that social media is much more active currently, especially with the state of the economy. Social is cheap when it comes to outside costs, but you need to factor in internal costs for all your social media activities. Too many marketers this last year have bypassed print because of budget cuts and have concentrated more on social media.
You also need to realize that social is a long-term strategy of building thought leadership and relationships, while print ads are another way of hitting targeted audiences with specific calls to action that can translate into short-term sales. In our space of marketing to the contractors and MRO markets, print publications have already identified and have gained credibility with these folks. Books like Contracting Business have put together a good offering of both print and online offerings to reach their audience, the HVAC contractor.
Here are some things for you to consider from Magazines Publishers of America:
There’s a place for using all the marketing tools that are available to us. As we go into 2010, don’t forget who got you this far. It’s been primarily print in the B-to-B sector. If you don’t believe me, ask your customers.
When marketing to tradesmen, don’t outspend your competition, outmarket them. Target marketing is more cost-effective and provides better leads.
Most B-to-B marketers have a very finite market, and even within those markets, they have many different audiences and messages to deliver. Sometimes even a targeted trade publication or web site targeted at a specific industry may be too broad a reach.
Today’s technology allows you to specifically target industries, job function, buying influence, geographic and the list goes on and on.
To maximize your budget and generate solid leads, think outside the box from the traditional tactics you’ve used in the past. Here are a couple of examples to kick-start your thinking:
Print Advertising
Instead of taking an ad out in a vertical publication with a circulation of 100,000 design engineers when your product only has applications to a small percentage of the total circulation, why not consider doing an insert targeted at those specific NAICS codes in the magazine, or a targeted e-mail campaign where you can be very specific about the features and benefits and how they could meet their needs.
If your product is technical in nature, again using these targeted techniques, get them to a webinar where you can demo the product with some of the experts back at corporate that know the product inside and out, but don’t have an opportunity to interface with customers very often.
Engineers like to talk to other engineers. They feel more comfortable. Let them set the hook and then let your salesmen begin reeling them in.
Outdoor Advertising
Most B-to-B manufacturers wouldn’t think about using outdoor. But outdoor could be pinpointed so that your message would be seen several times a day. Here’s an example: Suppose a manufacturer of a building material wanted to increase its share in a certain market to union electricians in a certain city. Outdoor could be used outside their union halls or nearby major new building sites where your message could be seen several times a day for an extended number of days.
You get the idea, don’t do the same old thing. To outmarket your competition, you don’t have to outspend them.
Have other examples? Share them in the comments section below.