It’s the mid-1990s - you’re probably trying to decide who’s better out of Oasis and Blur, or you’re trying to get over Take That’s split. If you’re a guy, you’re probably proudly wearing the infamous curtain hair-style and if you’re a girl you’ve probably got the Jennifer Aniston cut. All of these ideas now seem out of touch just as this prediction from the 90s…
Print advertising is dead
With the advent of the Internet, email, Myspace (!) and later Facebook, the rapid death of traditional advertising (including print advertising) was predicted. However, in today’s social media savvy world, print advertising has actually evolved to co-exist alongside digital marketing and has maintained a unique position in the marketing mix for restaurants.
Don’t believe us? Take a look at these shocking statistics...
74% of respondents in a recent 2018 Yougov survey trust adverts in local newspapers
The trust of potential customers is growing in local newspapers and this is for a number of reasons. Most newspapers have been around for many years therefore they have built their trust and reputation over time which means more people are likely to believe them. Just like when customers see your hygiene ratings in the window of your establishment - what you present to everyone builds trust. If you advertise your restaurant in the local paper it’s arguably worth a few TripAdvisor reviews.
People are also 3 times more likely to trust an article or advert in the local news over a post on social media sites such as Facebook. The scandal around Cambridge Analytica and fake news hasn’t helped Facebook with a trust rating of 21% and Twitter as low as 15%. You can see how local press has been fighting fake news for some time here.
Therefore, when placing an ad in a newspaper, you can be safe in the knowledge your business will be associated with quality, local journalism, and not the negative trend of fake news.
A huge 70% of readers are more likely to remember businesses seen in print compared to online
Let’s face it, when you’re online you’re probably shopping for something specific, looking at social media or reading something news related. This means that there are a lot of businesses vying for your attention to the point where some advertisers use pop-ups covering the whole screen to try to get through to you.
Advertising your restaurant in a local paper not only puts what you do on display to a mass, local audience but as people are more likely to be highly engaged in local news, your advert will naturally become more memorable. It’s also a far less intrusive way to tell people about your business, and to an extent readers will be expecting to see adverts within their paper.
Print advertising can be a fantastic medium which builds trust in your business but coupled with online advertising you can drive even more people to your restaurant. We have explained how print advertising can be very effective but coupled with digital marketing this can make a telling difference.If your print and digital adverts are running in tandem not only will you be reaching a big audience offline, but also the huge numbers of internet users, giving you a two pronged attack. If you use the same messaging, design and imagery in all your promotions on and offline, again your business will become more memorable, helping you to become the preferred restaurant in your area.
While was predicted back in the late 90's that print advertising would become dead, there was still a whopping £1.46 billion was spent on adverts in newspapers in 2017. All the stats point to advertising locally and the huge difference it could provide to your restaurant.
For more information on print advertising and how it can get bums on seats in your restaurant, check out the links below.
How To Link Your Digital And Print Marketing
