Making Your EssentialsMAG Adverts Work For You
EssentialsMAG has been supporting local businesses since 2005 and we have grown to two magazines distributed by hand to 14,000 homes. Our sales team works hard to plan advertising campaigns that raise our customers’ profiles and get their phones ringing.
We often speak to businesses who have tried advertising in local print publications before, but have seen little, or no return for their investment. One of the great advantages of working with us is our hyper-local marketing expertise, and we’re happy to use our knowledge to advise any local business owner on whether advertising with us is the right thing for them.
So, how can you make sure that YOUR EssentialsMAG campaign will work for you? Here are some things to consider:
If your main target market is within a defined geographical location, then it makes sense for your core marketing message to include the area (or areas) that you serve. Recent research has shown that, since the pandemic, shoppers are keener than ever to spend their money with local businesses, so the more aware they are of your local presence the better
At least 50% of our magazine content is editorial, which is why we’re so proud of our “Three R’s” – we are Received, Read, and Retained. We do not cover local news stories since news rapidly goes out of date. Instead, we seek out or commission “evergreen” content that is as valid in 6 months’ time as it is today, even given some of the seasonal flavour to some of our articles. That’s why our readers tend to keep hold of our magazines – they find interesting things to enjoy in them over and above the business advertising.
Given enough notice and depending on the style of advertising you book with us, we can commission bespoke editorials to align with your advertising. This positioning of YOUR business, products or offers next to an engaging and relevant article is a proven way to raise the profile of your business and generate enquiries.
People have short attention spans, so a single advert or adverts placed periodically in a single magazine is unlikely to generate any business for you. Research shows that customers need to see your message seven times before they take notice! Our recommendation is usually that you invest for the long term and plan a campaign over a minimum of three consecutive monthly advertising cycles, if not longer.
We have an in-house design team that can create an advert for your business that will target your ideal customers and grab their attention with a clear call to action. Or, if you have your own adverts already made, then our marketing team can review them for you and advise what changes to make so that they work harder for you in our magazine.
Have you an established process for handling enquiries from your printed adverts? Knowing whether your advertising spend is giving you a return on your investment is key. So, asking prospective customers a simple question such as “Where did you hear about us?” may give you valuable insights as to how effective your campaigns are.
When we speak to potential advertisers, sometimes the answer is no - EssentialsMAG is not for you. We don’t see this as a negative because the last thing we want to do is persuade any business owner to spend money on something that obviously won’t work for them.
So, for an honest appraisal of your chances of success advertising with EssentialsMAG please contact us.
