Print vs. Internet Advertising?

[mchastek]

We've all heard the saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Is this true for print advertising? Internet advertising offers incredible advantages over print - including accountability, a much lower price, solid lead tracking, etc - but yet there seems to be no end for the traditional magazine ad. I find this to be especially true in the Automotive Industry. I see companies that will happily pay ten times the money for one page in one issue of a print magazine than they would for an electronic ad for a whole month. Who knows how many people actually see that print ad? Who knows which magazine is generating more leads? With Internet advertising, an advertiser would have all of those answers.

Do you think Print advertising is here to stay forever? What do you think the future of Print and Internet advertising is?

[PCWiz]

With all the current information overload that we receive every day from news, email, Internet, cell phones, etc., most people no longer have the time to leisurely leaf through a magazine. Unless an ad really "jumps at you" or relates to some specific need we may have at the moment, most of the time the ads are simply ignored. Nowadays, due mostly to lack of time, we target the information we want, most people look directly in the Index section for any specific article or news they may want to read.

In my opinion the Internet offers a lot more for your advertising dollar. After all, how much can you display on a printed ad? Even in small text ads (Sponsored Links) like the ones that appear in Google and Yahoo, all you have to do is click on the link to see in full detail the product or service being offered. Furthermore, if it is something you will need in the future, you simply bookmark it for future reference. Have you ever tried to find through all your past magazine issues an ad that you remember seeing in a particular magazine?

Take the case of the Yellow Pages, in a recent research survey by the Kelsey Group and ConStat that appeared in eMarketer (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003321) 70% of US adults use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services — up from 60% in October 2003.

If you need your car repaired, would you look through the Yellow Pages and pick the biggest and most colorful ad, and hope for the best? When you can go to a search engine and type "car repair shops" and find shops in your city, in a matter of seconds, and be able to see and read all the specifics you need to make a decision.

Not only you can "see" if they have a nice clean shop, but you can also read about their areas of specialization, years of experience, certifications, etc.

On the other hand, in the last shop that I owned, I used to pay $1,500 per month for a half page ad in the Yellow Pages and the ad NEVER gave me enough return to cover it's cost. On the Internet, a well designed site showing all the specific details about a shop will cost you about $1,500. Add to that a fee for hosting and advertising on the search engines and you would be pressed to spend anymore than $4,000 PER YEAR! Simple equation, $15,000 per year for limited advertising space or $4,000 per year for full coverage, targeting most car owners in your shop's area. I think the Internet wins hands down.

Ed Burckhardt
www.ocautoservice.com

[mchastek]

I agree wholeheartedly. The ubiquity and immediacy of the Internet is extremely powerful. The ability to constantly update and expand one's Website is a huge advantage as far as getting key information to potential customers right away.

Excellent response Ed, I appreciate your comments!

-Mark

[MylesJ]

We advertised in a specific trade publication that used to work really well. The last two ads I ran were useless. If everyone that responded to the ad (by that I mean returning the bingo card) bought the product it, the profit would not pay for the ad.

We made our web site bigger and added e-commerce. We are getting reasonable traffic at the site. Most people do not order from the site. They go to the page with the list of local dealers and find someone they are like. They pay several hunderd dollars more to work with a local warm body.

I forget who said this but the internet is best used as a tool for pre-elimination. The customer looks through sites until they get down to a few likely candidates and then they want to talk to somebody.

[PCWiz]

Hi Myles,
Seems like you have a pretty good product (I went to your website) and the price is very reasonable. Have you tried sending postcards advertising your program and including your web site address in it? I think if you target dealers/shops around your area that could work well, just a thought. As to people wanting to talk to somebody, you are right, that's why we implemented a phone-to-phone service in our directory. Every shop has a banner with an animated phone in it, when the click on the phone a window pops up asking them to enter their phone number and as soon as they hit the "click to talk" button, both the caller's phone and the shop's ring at the same time, connecting them directly. No PC or speakers needed. At the beginning ( a year ago) didn't get much attention, but now our shops are getting more and more calls every day. I would assume you already visit a few shops around your city, perhaps you'd be interested in selling our product. We are going to be opening Oregon and Washington by the end of this month, if you think you might be interested shoot me an email.