Dear Alex,
We currently advertise in the local newspaper.
It seems expensive, but over the year, it drives a couple of leads and covers the costs, making it a worthwhile investment.
However, long term, I’d like to cut those costs down and not rely on newspaper advertising spend.
If I did social media training or social media management, could I just cut out the newspaper advertising spend?
What would you suggest?
You might not know that I used to be a journalist working across both print titles and online titles, so I have a great deal of respect for trusted publications that aren’t just advertorial, crime, and clickbait.
So, as much as you might expect a social media business owner to say to ditch anything that isn’t social media, I’ll give you the answer from the point of view of a marketing expert with over 25 years in multiple marketing disciplines.
So you’ve said that doing the newspaper advertising is driving enough enquiries to cover the costs and make a profit.
Marketing is about repeating the same things that work until they stop working.
So in that sense, you’d be foolish to stop advertising while it’s working.
Keep reviewing it every month to see if it’s worth continuing.
You’ve also mentioned that you don’t want to rely on paid advertising and that social media in its various forms could be the answer.
Firstly – Social Media doesn’t sit in a silo apart from all other forms of marketing.
Social Media is the only marketing channel that your customers will check every day, so it often enhances all other aspects of your marketing. We reached over 1 million people last month via social media (look here)
Think about the newspaper adverts that you’re paying for. If there’s already brand recognition because they see your business several times a week on social media, the advert will resonate more.
Each year, we run a charity campaign called Altrincham VS Cancer. Two of the fantastic local publications have featured us on the front cover of their publications, and we’ve been able to enhance that coverage by doing a mixture of photo and video content on social media.
Secondly – Social Media Marketing for most businesses takes time to build up. It isn’t an instant win, so the first thing you need to do is start generating the level of sales from social media that newspaper advertising is driving. Once both figures are the same, do an analysis of the time and money invested in both. If social media is delivering a much stronger ROI, then consider gradually reducing your traditional advertising spend.
Thirdly – Look at a multi-channel marketing approach and analyse how visible you are.
Give yourself a score out of 10 for the following:
Social Media
Networking
SEO / Google
Reviews
Public Speaking
Workwear
Long-Form Content (Blog / YouTube / Podcast)
Press
Email Marketing
Community Involvement / Sponsorships
Events
Awards
Which are you excelling at and which do you score zero for?
We can help with a lot of these areas, and if we can’t personally, we know the people who can.
Hope that answers your question.
Alex
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Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
