Why?
Before we start, let’s understand Why Owners and Marketers opt for Industry niche magazines to advertise.
The reasons why Industry Magazine advertisements are still prevalent
- They know the people at publications forever
- The advertisement of Magazine companies showing blown up numbers of subscriber count
- Poor knowledge of digital marketing in the industry
- No team to manage marketing channels or poor knowledge of marketing
Why you should not advertise in industry niche magazines.
You will argue that brand awareness is key to marketing, how can we miss that? But do you know that readers who are subscribing to Industry magazines are actually reading those? Ask yourself what you will gain from the ad spend that you are going to get from publishing on the website. If there is no gain, why send that budget? Even if you get 1 gain from publishing, then go ahead and do it. Otherwise spend the budget on some channel that has brought results to you in the past or some industry leaders who are using alternate channels.
Two main reasons why you should not go for Magazine advertising.
Impossible to calculate ROI
In the age of digital and social media where the whole fundamentals of marketing lie on analytics, doing Magazine advertising does not make sense. Some of the Industry niche magazine publishers does not have active subscribers list information with them. This becomes very difficult for any Marketing team or a CMO to prove ROI on the spend. Negative ROI should be your main point of concern, to not consider Industry Magazine advertising.
Pro Tip: Spend your marketing budget where you can show some ROI on your marketing activities and Industry Magazine advertising isn’t the one.
High Prices
Even if you consider doing an advert or a full-page interview with your company director, the cost of publishing is too high to consider as a value. The publishing company always tries to milk its paying customers. It is evident that the subscriber count of publication companies are declining compared to the days when digital marketing was not prevalent.
Although, if you take my advice don’t go for Industry Magazine Advertising. I feel, it’s not rewarding in any way. Instead, opt for some channels that you have not tried. Try Video Banner ads, Google Display Ads, or YouTube banner ads.
Even if you still want to go for an Industry niche marketing magazine try the below steps:
Negotiate with the publication company
Almost all the Magazine editorial companies are desperate for revenue. This I have observed during the negotiation with the sales team of some of the companies. They are willing to do anything to make a sale. Whatever price they quote, try to get down the costs by 70% – 80%. I am sure you will get a better deal and would cost almost nothing to your budget.
Integrate your digital presence with the Magazine
QR codes might be the best option for you. Adding QR code next to your CTA will allow the users to come to your website or any other platform that you are bringing the user to. Once the user is on your platform, then it’s on how you market your product and services. Its your playfield now. You can bring the user in your platform and push the communication that you want to promote. You are essentially “Deplatforming” the user.
Try for Digital Email Newsletter for Industry niche websites
The magazine industry has evolved and provide multiple formats to reach their targeted subscribers.
Perhaps, this is the most important and relevant marketing tactic in B2B/Industrial manufacturing marketing. All the magazine companies have digital newsletters. Try and do branding on digital newsletter content or sponsor the newsletter. The data of email subscribers are quite relevant and the volume of data is also quite high. Also, the most important part is analytics, you can measure the performance of each campaign. What type of communication is working? Who has opened the email? who clicked on the email? and so on.
Target audience and trust
Magazines cater to specific demographics and interest-based readerships, allowing businesses to reach niche and engaged audiences. If you are a leader in the industry and want to reach a broader set of audience, then an industry niche magazine might be a good option. Readers might get a sense of credibility and trust than online ads.
My entire analysis might be wrong. However, given the opportunities that the market provides with digital platforms, smaller and midsize B2B manufacturing companies are not able to encash on those opportunities. Large-size corporations and Multinational companies can use Industry Magazine advertisements as a channel as they have huge budgets with a brand image that they want to sustain.
