We received an unbelievable reaction to my post last week on why print will be making a comeback in 2011. The overall point was this: Print is still an incredibly important part of the marketing mix, even though it may have fallen outside of the spotlight for the past few years. (If you get a chance, take a stroll through the comments of the post.)
Joe Pramberger from NASA Tech Briefs was nice enough to point out some findings about how important the integration of advertising and content marketing are (findings in association with Lion Associates).
Here are some of the major findings in their 2010 reader survey.
After reading an article in the magazine or viewing an ad in the magazine…
- 75% visited the company’s website
- 66% went to a search engine for more information
This means that the print communications, without a heavy dose of great content on the website and readily available in search engines, isn’t going to be nearly as effective. The print and online content must work together.
The search engines point is critical. If someone is going to a search engine after engaging in a print piece, they are most likely going to learn more information. That information could come from the company featured in the print, or it could come from the competition. The point may be this: the best most findable online content may just win the buying recommendation.
And get this: when buyers go to the web (according to the survey), they are 77% more likely to click on a search engine or online directory result if they’ve seen that company in an ad. Publishers have been pushing this data for years, which they should.
Advertising and content marketing can’t live separately. Heck, they share the bedroom!
I’ll end with this…over the summer, a publisher came up to me with a copy of my book and asked why I hate advertising so much. To that I said this:
Targeted advertising can still be incredibly effective, but without an integrated content marketing strategy, it’s a waste of money. Most people who see an ad and take action go online looking for content, for more information. So my point is this…get your content marketing house in order, and then unleash your advertising.
3 Comments
Hi Joe,
Great stuff. I’m not as bullish on print making a comeback. However, another opportunity may be the QR (quick response) codes that are being used in places like Japan. These simple codes that appear in magazine and newspaper ads can be easily scanned by a free app on the iPhone and will take the reader to the advertiser’s destination of choice, e.g., website, landing page, etc. That may be the future of a print comeback. In a sense, the static print ad now becomes “interactive”.
Mark Burgess
mburgess@bluefocusmarketing.com
Joe
I think we had a Vulcan Mind Meld going on… I was just talking about this today on my blog. Advertising is evolving to be a “top of the funnel” acquisition tool with Content serving as the catalyst for the creation of ongoing conversations that convert to sales. Don’t you think?
Here is a link to my post if you want to check it out
http://budurl.com/BreadcrumbMkting
@TomMartin
Thanks for this, Joe.
You’re dead-on with the observation that advertising is a waste without an integrated content strategy to engage that target audience when they go online for more information. We work with a lot of small ad agencies that buy a mix of traditional and online local media for their clients – most definitely, no matter the industry, it’s not an “either/or” question (paid advertising vs. content marketing).
I agree with your comment, Tom, that advertising has evolved to be top of funnel (http://ht.ly/2rRej ) with online content pulling folks deeper into the sales cycle.
Timely topic for discussion.
Thanks,
Jessie
@jjhnsn
@avenueright