Remaining Print-Only is Foolish But Not for the Reasons You Think

Digital is not replacing print - at least not in the way you think if you're a local publisher.

In nearly every business you strive to identify opportunities to introduce new product lines. My father-in-law runs a local HVAC (heating and air conditioning) business and a few years ago added solar installation because his company was fundamentally well equipped to offer this new product which results in new value and more revenue.

A retailer is always on the lookout for new clothing lines that will be well received by their customers - either to meet their current customers needs or to attract a new clientele.

Product extension doesn't detract from the 'current' offering when done well it enhances and complements it.

Why? Because there are two ways to increase revenue: sell more to existing customers and attract new customers. Period. New product offerings can accomplish both of these things when done well.

Years ago, print publishers would welcome product extension in the form of inserts, special advertising sections, an event business, printing services and the like however for some reason digital has been viewed as something entirely different rather than an additional offering as it should be.

Sure, some advertisers are no longer buying print ads but that's a combination of normal cyclical behaviors (buyer fatigue?), other offerings better suited for their marketing goals or budget, momentum and hype, and - yes - some trends. But this dynamic is at play regardless of whether you actively and effectively embrace new (digital) products or not.

Here are three very different examples of how publishers are becoming more profitable ADDING digital products to their print core.

First, one of our new publishers who just launched her magazine site with us this week pre-sold 10 digital sponsorships to existing print advertisers. In addition to their print ads because they wanted to expand and enhance their campaign. She literally pre-sold her website and has a solid approach to deliver (just like how publishers used to pre-sell print).

In an alternative example, the publisher of Mansfield Magazine sent us the following message this week:

Thought you guys would like to know. This office used to run print ads with me ($1200 every other month or $600/month) but they have not run an ad in almost 2 years. I spoke with him last week, and while I couldn't get him to include print with his ad plan he is running an initial 6-month digital package at over $400/month... I'm way ahead of where I was yesterday because he had no interest in print, so I had digital to offer. Plus, I can use this as a springboard for future potential digital customers.

So, not only was she nearly even on-net from when they were buying print-only 2-years ago (adjusting for the print cost of fulfillment) but she's $400+/month ahead on-net from last week.

In our final example, we've had a half-dozen publishers running special Valentine's Day promotions each with 3-8 paying sponsors. If I didn't explicitly say they were run digital on Facebook with promotion on their website, email lists, and - where it aligned with their print cycle - in print,  you might be tempted to think I was referring to a print-only promotion.

I'll conclude this mild rant with some basic math to put a finer point to these examples:

• The average community has 1 small business for every 10-20 people who live their (population)
• The average publisher has 40-120 advertisers in print
• A community of just 25,000 people has 1250-2500 small businesses
• The average publisher in this community of 25k people currently FAILS to have 1130-2460 local businesses as a paying customer. Put another way, at best they have 9.6% of the local businesses as advertiser and more likely have a measly 1.6% of local businesses as a paying customer
• Local businesses are spending 25%+ of their marketing budget on digital
• If you could attract just an additional 1% of 1250 local businesses you'd have an additional 125 paying customers, if their average spending were just $100/month you're looking at $12,500/month in additional revenue

How much are you failing to make from digital today?

Here's a simple model you can use to fill in the gaps for your market, if you need help pencilling how much money your'e currently losing by not doing print right or how you can effectively sell and deliver digital as a complement to print you can contact us to schedule a free 1-hour digital overview and we'll show you how.

My population is ___,_____ people.

We have _____,______ local businesses (multiply population by 5-10% or contact your local government, chamber or economic development office.

Our current monthly revenue is $____,______ which means our potential digital revenue just by up selling clients is (current Rev * 25%) $___,_____

If we could add $___,_____ (digital revenue from current clients) in new, profitable, digital revenue I'd take a vacation too __________ (Favorite or bucket-list vacation destination)