Why You Should Advertise in Special Interest Magazines

Small businesses often focus their advertising strategies online. After all, it's inexpensive, and you pay only for results.

But by leaving print advertising on the table, they are likely missing out on exploiting some fantastic, inexpensive advertising.

I'm not saying that your average small business should blow their budget on skateboarding tips double-page spread in People Magazine, but if there's a small circulation special interest magazine that fits in perfectly with what you're selling, you'd be crazy not to advertise there.

After all, if you are advertising a new brand of skateboard wheels, do you think three lines of text (no matter how well crafted) beside search results will have the impact of a full color ad in a magazine subscribed to by thousands of skateboarding fanatics?

Proven Buyers

While people who click on your advertising online might be interested in what you have to offer, many won't be willing to pay money for it. There's no way to cull out the merely curious from the serious buyers.

But an ad in a magazine targeted to your market segment is directed at people who have proven they are willing to spend money in your niche... they have either paid for one issue at newsstand prices, or for a subscription to the magazine... either way, they are proven buyers.

Effective Frequency

Advertising studies show that an ad usually needs to be seen between three and ten times in order to be effective.

For PPC and banner advertising, you might get there by fluke or persistence. For daily or weekly newspapers, you need to consistently advertise.

But in a magazine, you can achieve your effective frequency in one issue. Many magazine lovers keep their issues in the bathroom or living room and flip through them many times before finally storing, lending or recycling them. This is particularly true of specialty magazines.

I once surveyed subscribers of a niche craft magazine about how many times they read their issues. The average issue was read 8 times. Zero respondents threw out or recycled their copies. Most kept them as reference and expected to read them again over the next year. Some subscribers passed their copies on to a friend and one sold them on eBay. The advertisers in that magazine were truly getting their money's worth!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many three line AdWords ads does it take to describe a full skateboarding tips glossy ad in a highly targeted magazine?

Be sure to invest in professional photography, and design your ad to appeal to the audience of the magazine you're advertising in, and you're sure to achieve great results with special interest magazines.

Wendy Woudstra has been a print evangelist for as long as she can remember. Check out more of her articles about magazine publishing at http://PublishingCentral.com/magazinepublishing, and read interviews with successful independent magazine publishers in niches you probably didn't know existed.