Print is dead. Again?

[GordonJ]

I like sources, seems citations have gone away and IMers just throw out any thing they want to be a fact (a lot like POTUS).

So, it is fun to see a site, www.printisbig.com who has cited their sources and even more fun to see that PRINT is alive and well, thank you very much.

Sure, sites like graphicarts mag. love to tout the idea that PRINT is dead, but the reality is...it isn't going away any time soon.

And,

“According to a recent survey by MarketingSherpa, 82 percent of internet users trust print ads when making a purchase decision — making them the most trusted form of advertising.”

There has been a rush toward "Digital Agency" as a way of selling SEO, Social Media, IM in general, and anyone can claim they know or they ARE a digital agency....HA!

I've recently run into scores of local businesses at a meeting, and they have been bombarded with all kinds of sales calls, sales people cold calls, and even DIRECT MAIL, Ha-Ha!!, hyping and touting the advantages of digital marketing.

We may get there someday, but not today. Not yet, I'd wager the majority of small mom and pop businesses still get most of their customers the old fashioned way, through PRINT advertising.

Just today, my mail was full of PRESIDENT DAY ADS, why so many beds? I guess dead presidents put us all into a snooze mode?

Anyhow, so far, no SMS, few email ads, very few online offers for the specials to be had at real stores, for this holiday (is it still one???).

BIG LOTS, they don't send out ads that often, but they had a big one in today's mail.

This came up in a conversation I was having about CO-OP ads, and spoke this morning with two people, one an old friend still grinding away in his Print Brokering business, the other asking about conferring with me on a BRIDAL SHOW co-op advertising campaign.

Been to a bridal show lately? Or any trade show? We just had the home and garden show, and you know what I came home with? A giant bag full of PRINT offers.

Seems all things house and garden still like to pass things out which can be read...and studies have shown,

According to The Wall Street Journal, sales of traditional print books rose by 5 percent in the US last year, while sales of ebooks plunged by 17 percent

just one of many statistics which show people LIKE paper and ink, have you gotten a card in the snail mail lately? Much better for most of us than an ecard, albeit, the sentiment may be the same. We give more THOUGHTFULNESS credit to the sender of a paper and ink card, don't we?

Anyhow, I've been working with a few people who are still out there selling advertising, the paper and ink kind, and some are doing quite good with it.

The biggest mistake I see is TOO MANY ads on your vehicle, be it a giant postcard, a daily menu board, or a mug, mat or magnet. Less is faster.

Faster is MORE money in your pocket quicker.

Sure, some guys sell 15 slots on a giant postcard, in a month or two, but how much TIME is wasted chasing after people, so much slop and mess, when others can and do, just a few.

One guy gets ONE CORPORATE sponsor for his daily special menu board, and he's happy as a clam (never understood that saying, how happy can a clam be??).

Anyhow, he gives away a free board, and has one of the restaurant suppliers SPONSOR it for several hundred dollars a year, no muss, no fuss, no run around Sue, just one quick take it or leave it offer.

Imagine, a restaurant which serves both Coke and Pepsi (doubtful, but for example)...you have COKE sponsor the sign, or ask them first and say, well, if you don't want it, I'll ask PEPSI?

Always good to mention competition.

Anyhow, PRINT is not dead. Still money to be made from things a small business can see, feel, touch, hold in their hands...all the while someone is trying to sell him eyeballs via SEO.

Money to be made in PRINT, AND plenty of expertise to call upon.

GordonJ