Print Advertising is Dead?

Carnegie Higher Ed Apr 24, 2012 Carnegie Higher Ed Persona The Visionary Frontrunner

Supposedly the same goes for e-mail, right? Well, no. Neither is dead. The fact is, any form of advertising is dead if not done intelligently.

Placing a print ad without any correlation to other marketing is like failing Marketing 101. Students and parents still read magazines and print pieces and check their e-mail. Period. How can I state this so emphatically? Because we’re seeing responses and results from these efforts not only hold strong but actually grow. A recent e-mail outreach we did had an open rate of over 20% and a click-through rate of over 10%. The responses generated from a physical response card in our magazines still provide thousands of leads each year for our clients.

As the VP of Publishing, I’m regularly associated with our “print” division. To this I chuckle. There is nothing that we do that is just one basic print ad. We complement everything with our online efforts, our e-mail outreaches, and our follow-up plan. It’s the multi-touch point efforts that matter. As the mantra goes, it takes about seven touches before a conversion occurs. These touches should be diversified in medium and reach but consistent in message.

Building a brand message and incorporating that into smart advertising is the critical part. Coordinate with your print ads, e-mail messages, viewbooks, website, display ads, on-campus promotion, and everything in your arsenal of visibility. Be savvy with your efforts, making them targeted (use intelligent display ad delivery, niche print marketing, and thoughtful search outreach) and cost effective.

So, in sum, the title of this post is a lie. Print isn’t dead. It’s alive and well and a necessary pillar in everything you’re doing for marketing to support a common goal: reaching potential students effectively at home, in school, and online. Be there — intelligently.

You can follow me on Twitter @meghdale; or on Google Plus as Meghan Dalesandro.

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