Yesterday I discussed the mistake developers often make in presuming that they themselves are Media Experts. In that same vein, I will show you today how hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert is a not only an outdated but also wasteful mistake many developers often make.
Mistake #4 - Hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert. Print media is not a dinosaur - it's an albatross. The problem with print media marketing agencies is a two-headed one: First and foremost, they are excessively expensive, with no real proven ROI. At 15% - 30% , why would any well founded print media marketing company mess with the web? The fact of the matter is that they don't really use online marketing beyond instances when they are forced to. Second, on the rare occasion that they do decide to utilize online marketing strategies, their vacuous knowledge of this very different technique forces them to lean heavily on their print media background, thus costing their developer clients tens of thousands of wasted dollars.
A print media group is unlikely to embrace the web. Their experience in both their revenue stream and understanding of outdated marketing strategies has nothing to do with the way the stream of information flows and through the web and thus back into the marketplace. In order to connect on the web, it takes expertise, a cadre of technology geeks and online marketing guru's - who are constantly and simultaneously working the marketing strategies into the technology footprint and presence from Google across the Virtual Earth. The nature of the web is information - this fact needs to rise above the noise. Print media has an automatic filter, limited distribution, high cost, and of course no means of tracking effectiveness of the ad. The best statistic you will ever get will concern sales of the publication itself. While this may tell you your ad was probably seen by X number of people.
Even if you still spend the big bucks on print ads, 85% of the time they will "spill" (that is, move from offline to online browsing and research) on to the internet. All those marketing dollars that have been spilled over can be captured by your competitor. I've seen this first hand: Our firm brought in leads from a major print marketer who was marketing for our client's main competition. We were able to deliver these to our online client for around $10,000, which became $5mm worth of sales for them. The reason I know this is because online marketing is that intelligent - it can tell you what the leads were looking for and how they found your before you ever pick up the phone or email them. If you want to market, market right. Get on the web and go with an expert.