Throwing your Marketing Budget Down the Press!

I don’t buy newspapers locally since I end up finding out what is happening through twitter, facebook, and blogs like Poder5 which have earned my trust. In other occasions just by talking with someone offline I get news of everything else that is happening.  Here in Puerto Rico many people buy the newspaper daily and there is another group that at least buy it on Sundays. My concern is that like many traditional media channels internationally sadly our newspapers are influenced by a selected small population on the Island. Objective journalism is not something you often see here and if you are small business you should clearly understand that. The larger companies leverage newspapers to keep the population and smaller competitors under there control.

What makes the situation even worst is how local newspapers are full of ads and hardly any valuable content. I had a friend that use to coach Radio industry executives in the sales aspect of their business by recommend them to carry copies of the newspaper. When a customer used the excuse they could not buy radio spots or ads because they had their budget already for newspaper advertisements they should bring out the newspaper and have the customer find the ad they bought.

It might sound like an easy task on a regular newspaper but when you see how many ads they fit in one edition you clearly get the point. If those customers had trouble finding the ad they bought imagine the effect it has when someone just browses over the newspaper trying to tune out the ads. I still see people throwing part of their marketing budget away without actually measuring how effective those ads are.

I think measurement is the biggest obstacle most companies have. No matter what size locally they are more inclined towards spending money on traditional advertising even if it brings them no result. They just clearly want to see there ad and logo on a piece of paper (if they can find it). Some of them actually put in the effort of finding their ad not realizing how inefficient it was to publish the ad in the first place.

When you look at the content these local newspapers provide I would clearly stay away from any advertisements especially if I have a limited budget.

What makes it more ridiculous is that they make people buy the newspaper?

I have a boycott on local newspapers for many reasons that I will discuss on other posts related of the lack of professionalism that lurks locally in this industry and how they try to intimidate any business that tries to call them out on what is wrong.

Stay clear of those individuals that have an offer you can’t refuse!

Are there other places where people and businesses throw their marketing budget away? What do you recommend to make sure you are placing your marketing money in the right place?

photo credit Some rights reserved by Julian Stallabrass