Why print media ads cannot compete with online

Print advertising is best

Do you use printed advertising for your products or services? No?
It is said that B2B magazines drive more buyers than any other medium as it has the most positive impact.
Apparently, both editorials and advertising work very well for lead generation.

The question is how well and how can this be proved? Measuring is required.

Problem: proving the effectiveness of print advertising

B2B magazines need to measure and report their effectiveness to their customers: the supplier companies, distributors and professional services.
They mention the distribution of then number of copies per issue and the statistics of the reader groups. These are generic data about the audience.
However there is no one-to-one proof, as there is no apparent or automated self registration link from the printed ad to the communication from the interested party.

The potential customer will use the information found in the advertising to contact you using:
- Telephone number
- Email
- Website
- Address: writing an inquiry letter seems a bit outdated in B2B
These actions are completely disconnected from the printed media ad.
No link. No proof.

Asking the visitor his source
Asking the visitor where he found your company during a telephone conversation is possible and will likely be answered.
However asking the same question, when he fills out an online contact form could already be a question to much. Moreover the data captured online data will be far from complete, as only very few visitors will ever fill out forms.

There is no benefit for the potential lead to state where he found you, thus no reason to cooperate.
In order to encompass this, using promotion codes printed on the ad to be used an additional discount during purchase or during completion of the inquiry form will give the best possible feedback for print advertising.

However asking for a bonus code during the first inquiry visit on a website is probably over the top and will probably not be answered by any visitor. As the visitor is not yet even identified by company name or qualified as a lead.

The effort of cooperation needs to come from the potential customer.

Online advertising: embedded measurability

Online advertising has the big advantage of traceability: the trails of the source of the website visitor are easy to retrieve as the advertising or banner is linked with the website.
For every visitor on the website the origin can be known:
- An online advertisement: easy to measure: click through
- A link on a website
- A search
- A direct hit
Thus online advertising has the benefit of measurability that is embedded in the system.

Print advertising: no proof

- Printed media ads
- Directories
- Yellow pages
- Press Release can give an exposure to your brand in many magazines and newspapers.
- Editorials
- Leaflets from trade shows
Carry all the same contact information. Thus you can’t pinpoint where the different inquiries came from.

Print media needs to solve the measurability

If print media can’t solve the problem of missing to measure and to prove their effectiveness on-to-one, printed advertising will have an uncertainty, thus will be considered as a risk.
This will make print advertising less interesting for advertisers.

If you can’t measure, you can’t proof your Return On Investment.

Thus prices of print advertising will decrease as demand will decrease too because of the un-measurability.