Using Print Display Ads to Point
to Your Online Brochure (Part 1)

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Web Marketing Today, Issue 53, February 1, 1999

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This article contains older information. Go here for newer information on advertising and affiliate marketing.

Two job sites, Monster.com and HotJobs.com, spent $1.6 million each for 30 seconds of fame during the Super Bowl. HotJobs.com is the smallest company to ever run a Super Bowl ad, investing a huge proportion of their overall budget. The 1999 Super Bowl demonstrated that online businesses believe in the importance of traditional offline advertising to promote their sites. Recently Snap.com, BarnesAndNoble.com and Go.com have promoted their sites on TV. Clearly traditional media is part of the advertising mix for online businesses.

But how can a smaller company afford primetime TV? You probably can't, and even if you could, the chances are it wouldn't work for you. By and large, TV is a mass medium, and only products used by the masses are good candidates for national airing. That may work for the big companies of the world, but smaller businesses carve out their successes in the niches that their big brothers overlook.

The first question an online business asks is, "Where on the Internet do my best prospects congregate?" But that's clearly too narrow. It's better phrased, "What media do my best prospects use?" And the answer is often: in print specialty magazines and trade journals.

Advertising blinders

How are companies using print advertising? Ours is a magazine-reading family, so I didn't have to go far to see how some companies are trying to span the distance between print and Internet. I didn't look for the full-page color ads in a journal's early pages -- though those could work for companies who have the budget -- but for the quarter-column and 1/12 page ads found near the back, the territory more affordable for small businesses.

My first discovery was that many advertisers are clueless about the power of the Web. Most of the ads (except in the computer magazines) didn't include a URL -- 800-numbers won the day. And of those that did give a URL, most were do-it-yourself creations a couple of years behind the time. But here and there were some gems.

Brochureware

Many marketers and site designers speak disdainfully of "brochureware" websites. They may forget that while many off-the-shelf products can be sold directly over the Web, the sale of custom-built products and many services must be consummated with a phone call. For high ticket items, the final contract may be signed with a face-to-face meeting. For these a brochure is an important part of the sales process. The purpose of a brochure is several-fold:

1. To convey information needed to support the sale.
2. To help position the company in the mind of the reader.
3. To call for further action such as making a phone call or sending an e-mail.

Pen Blanks

Tim Hutchinson, owner of Hut Products, Inc. (http://www.hutproducts.com) of Sturgeon, Missouri, sells lathe-turned pen blanks in exotic woods to woodworkers. His small 1/12 page black and white ad in Wood Magazine costs $2,500 to $3,000 per month for exposure to 600,000 woodworkers. Hutchinson believes that most of his sales need the personal touch of a telephone call to make sure the shopper understands exactly what he needs and wants before ordering, so right now Hutchinson isn't pushing for online ordering.

His website, however, serves as an online brochure that shows prospects what he has to offer, displays the wood colors and volume prices, and gets prospects ready to purchase. It also saves him money. His print catalog costs $1.00 per copy to print and $1.25 to mail, but, when sent out to those who request it from his magazine display ad, generates only a 1% response. "We've got to get these catalogs out there," he says, "but I'd like to stop the spurious requests for catalogs." He's found, however, that of those who request a catalog via the Internet, the response rate is as high as 14%. "If someone has gone to the effort to find you on the Internet," he reasons, "they're likely to be more serious." They also know better what you offer, and don't need to request a catalog to find out. Combined with a display ad in a targeted print publication, Hut Products' brochureware site is helping the bottom line.

Incorporation Services

Another example of using a website as a brochure is CorpCo (http://www.corpco.com), a firm that specializes in getting domestic and foreign businesses set up as Delaware Corporations. They purchased a 1" display ad in Inc. Magazine that cost them $1,000 to $1,200 per month. Inc. sounds like an excellent place for such an ad, since it's read by small business owners, start-ups, and corporate wannabes. Their site doesn't offer online sales, but provides quite a bit of material designed to support a sale. An FAQ allays common concerns, exact prices to incorporate in each state are listed, services are spelled out in detail, and an article describes the advantages of incorporating in Delaware. Their marketing strategy is to help prospects learn enough to be motivated to call and place an order.

Hardwood Floors

Barry Sopinsky, who manages MacDonald Hardwoods (http://www.macwoods.com), a flooring store in Denver, Colorado, has combined print advertising with his website for a number of months. Until recently he has run only local ads in the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News to increase sales in his retail store. "Each time we've run an ad, we always mention our website," he says. He finds that traffic to his site always bumps up when the ads run. Last month he decided to try some national sales, and purchased a 1/12th page ad in the 1 million reader Home magazine ("the Remodeling and Decorating Magazine") for under $2,000 in the "Shopping at Home" section.

If your marketing model is to provide information that results in qualified leads, consider a deliberate wedding of traditional targeted display ads with your online brochure.

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Part 2 - Marrying Traditional Advertising to Online Sales

Read additional articles from Web Marketing Today, Issue 53, February 1, 1999