From the nineties to the present today, industrialized and developing countries have been living in an increasingly digitized world. Around every corner, in every store or home, there is a screen tapped directly to the internet and relaying information to its user. Email, phones, television: these have become the dominant modes of accessing information for a sizeable portion of this world’s human inhabitants.
Companies have tapped into this expanding network of communication to further their advertising goals. Advertisements pepper social media, streaming services, webpages—you name it, it probably has an ad.
However, while it’s important for businesses to tap into these lines of communication, it comes at a cost. Recent surveys show digital advertising can prompt negative reactions in users. In fact, a sizeable portion of internet users—roughly 42%—use an advertisement blocker.
If you’re running a digital only advertising campaign, this could pose a problem for you—the negative associations around online advertising and the proliferation of ad-block means less eyes on the content you want people to see. Fortunately, these efforts can be supported by a solid print advertising campaign.
The benefits of print advertising
Print advertising comes with a handful of unique advantages that complement each other and can even boost your digital efforts. This includes:
Boost digital traffic: At the very least, print ads can boost traffic to your website and social media by including links or QR codes to their respective pages. Print ads pretty much stick around forever—as long your website is maintained and a copy of the ad exists, you can still expect to see some amount traffic.
Permeance: Once your ad is in a magazine or newspaper: that’s it. It’s there forever unless it’s somehow destroyed. As long as someone has a print copy of your ad, it can be shared indefinitely. Compare this with digital information: contrary to popular belief, what’s posted online doesn’t stay there forever. Websites can break or be abandoned, you may choose not to renew advertising space for a digital publication, leading it to being supplanted by a competitor or old posts may be deleted with no sufficient backups.
Targeted audiences and credibility: With advertising online, you’re casting a wide net to catch as many people as possible. This outreach has its benefits, but the people who are most interested in your business may not be seeing it. This is where print advertising comes in. By choosing a magazine with a reputation for catering to an audience you’re interested in, you can reach out to them directly with a well-placed print ad. Your ad will almost certainly catch the eye of dedicated readers, meaning there’s a higher chance they will follow up with your business.
Memorable design: Whether it’s a full-page ad or otherwise, print advertising gives you the opportunity to create a memorable image that will bring traffic to your business. Do you want something bold or striking? Or something more playful or humorous? The choice is yours—print advertising lets you set your own pace and gives you the freedom to define your brand.
Jump into print advertising with PIA
One of the responsibilities of being a business owner is finding the best avenues to grow it. By advertising in PIA’s monthly magazine, which has decades of experience and can reach 20,000 insurance professionals a month, you have a large selection of dedicated readers who are almost guaranteed to take your ad into account. Take your brand to new heights and advertise with us today.
Matt McDonough is PIA Northeast's writer, editor and content curator. Matt joined PIA Northeast in September 2023. Before that, he had been an editor for the online entertainment magazine Collider from 2021-23 as a copy editor for its lists section. Matt entered the world of journalism at his alma mater, SUNY New Paltz, writing and reporting for the college's student run newspaper, The New Paltz Oracle. He graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in Creative Writing in 2020.
