Fact: A full page, black-and-white ad in the Wall Street Journal will set you back the cost of a house: $164,300! $210,300 if you want it in color. And that's not including the cost of designing the ad (and good copy-writing is both expensive and, generally, worth it) or other associated costs.
Now, chances are, that price range is well out of budget for you. But if it wasn't, would you go for it?
What if I gave you a super-mega-ultra-amazing-awesome deal-of-the-century and offered you that piece of prime-real estate for only $50,000. Would you jump on it?
Well, you shouldn't. Here's why.
"But, that's such an amazing deal!?" you might protest.
Well, it all depends on what you think the deal is. It looks like you're saving $150,000+, but what are you getting for your money?
Nothing worth that $50,000, I'll bet you. How do I know. Well, consider the following, take from Seth Godin's break-through book Purple Cow (a marketing book which you must read), where he lampoons just what's so wrong and wasteful about people who still resort to this dying form of advertising:
The Wall Street Journal is the poster-child for marketing old-think. . . . If you took 90% of these ads and swapped the logos around, no one could tell. . . . One morning, with time to kill at a fine hotel, I interrupted a few people who were reading the Journal over breakfast. I waited until they had finished the first section, and then I asked them if they could name just two of the companies that had run full-page ads. Not one person could.
Then I took one of the ads, folded down the bottom with the logo, and asked the Journal readers which company ran the ad. No idea.
Finally, I asked them the million-dollar question (literally). Had they ever requested more information about a product because they'd seen a full-page ad in the Journal?
I'm sure you have already guessed the answer.
Now, some people enjoy spending large amounts of money frivolously. That's why there is an industry that markets watches that cost more than most people's cars (or a Wall Street Journal 1/4 page black and white ad!).
If you want a full-page trophy of how much you can spend on dead advertising, then by all means, go for it.
But if you want advertising that works, then you're simply looking in the wrong place if you're sticking with "traditional" avenues. It may feel safe since it's what you're accustomed to, but it absolutely not a viable option anymore!
If you want advertising that works, you need to go where your customers are going to search - online.
