July 10, 2007

By Scott Zosel

Print ads are an excellent investment if executed correctly.

If you’re looking for a dramatic way to make a big splash in your marketplace, print advertising is a great way to get the attention of your prospects, and your competitors. But before you go down this road, take a deep breath and read a few rate cards from your industry publications. If you haven’t looked lately, you might be in for a shock.

If your publication’s circulation is in the 150,000 range, plan on about $10,000 or more for a full page ad, or roughly $2,500 for full page in a publication with about 20,000 circulation. This ads up very quickly. And, most important, if you’ve got your heart set on print advertising, make sure you budget is set out for at least six months to see any real results. In other words, unless you have $75,000 to invest, print advertising is not the best marketing option for a startup technology company.

How to use it successfully:

These days, if you simply want to generate qualified leads, there are many other more reliable and cost effective methods like sponsored links in highly targeted online newsletters, adwords and many other cost per click online options. The most effective use of print advertising in technology marketing today is simply for branding. Sure, running print ads in a large horizontal publication with 250,000 readers can net a truckload of quality leads, but the cost per lead can be staggering.

If you’re a marketing or brand manager for a large, well funded technology organization, print advertising is the perfect solution for quickly generating millions of impressions among your target audience. But it’s true role is to support other lead generation campaigns you would be running such as banners, sponsorships, adwords and other that are pointing qualified prospects back to your website where the real customer relationship starts to bloom.

Simply put, when prospects see your big, beautiful four color ad in a major industry publication, it gives your company instant credibility in your category, provided the ad was created by design professionals who understand your business. But that’s another story.

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