Ideas for Using the Web for Print Advertising

As a custom content marketing agency, Pace Communications straddles the digital divide. There is great convergence between print and digital, especially when it comes to developing content for each channel. One area of convergence exists with print advertising—from finding ways to send additional readers to the Web for promotion, and being able to track how many people go to the Web from a print publication. Here are several ideas for improving trafficking and metrics with using the Web for print advertising:

1. Develop an ad that features both your social-networking addresses and the social icon. Use the correct brand icon for an RSS feed, Twitter feed or Facebook, and you will increase the chances of getting more traffic to your social media and social-networking sites.

2. Use Microsoft Tags that let a reader scan content from a magazine and view it on their mobile phones. Using an installed Tag reader application on their phone, a reader is sent to a Web page or is instructed to conduct another call to action, such as dial a telephone number to a customer call center.

All the reader needs to do is download the free Tag reader on a Web-enabled camera phone, and when the reader sees a tag in a print magazine, he or she can snap or scan the tag to interact with the advertiser. The advertiser can build a tag that sends a reader to watch a video, join their Twitter page and read more Web content. Ford Motor Co. incorporated tags in a recent print advertising campaign. The Ford campaign takes mobile phone users to a website with video clips that explain Ford’s technology.

3. Put a unique URL in your print ad, and track any readers who go to that URL from the print ad. The focus of your print ad may even be to direct the reader to the Web,  where you will be able to capture that reader’s information for future marketing. Giving readers a free offer or free content on the website will encourage readers to respond to your call to action.

A sub-domain or suffix, such as http://printad.mydomain.com or http://mydomain.com/printad, is easy to develop, but readers may not remember the suffix or may instead miss the suffix and go straight to the domain name. Instead, consider creating a unique URL for your print ads, such as http://myuniquedomain.com.

Remember one of your goals should be to track the effectiveness of your print advertising, and using a unique URL will enable you to capture more traffic sent by your print readers.

If you do send readers to your website via a unique URL, make sure the content in the ad is referenced. Four ways to encourage readers to visit your website include:

• Create offers and promotions that drive people to your website to participate;
• Offer free information that you know will interest the reader;
• Provide a free data tool on your website that provides information that relates to your product or service;
• Ask readers to text your company.

If you have trouble creating a unique URL, and your URL is so long that makes it tough for a reader to remember to retype, consider using a short URL service such as Bit.ly. The Bit.ly service will let your clients track a number of different URLs. You can also develop a custom short URL. Given the volume of traffic to Bit.ly because of its former partnership with Twitter, this Compete.com comparison illustrates Bit.ly’s lead with other shortening services.

Posted By: John Cass