Wow! The first 3 Quarters of 2015 just blew by. The holiday season has arrived here faster than you can say pecan pie. The NRF ( National Retail Federation) has predicted that consumer holiday spending will rise to just over $800 per person. This figure is the highest amount spent per person in the entire history the NRF has conducted the survey. They have also determined that online spending will only contribute to about half of all holiday purchases. This means that there is still plenty of reasons why it is important to make sure that some of our holiday advertising dollars are spent on more traditional forms of media. Traditional media like print advertising can be a great way to reach your audience when they are not online.
Reduce Sales lulls by spreading out Holiday Advertising Dollars
Even if you haven’t already spent months planning your holiday advertising budget, no worries. There are still plenty of things that you can do to jump start sales this holiday season. Planning an effective holiday campaign is much easier when you understand where the spikes are in online searches and when the most popular in-store shopping days are throughout the holiday shopping season.
Since only about 50% of holiday purchase will be made online this year, this means that there is a ton of opportunity to catch your next best prospective buyer some place other than online. Studies continuously show that a combination of print and digital advertising produces the highest return on investment across the board.
Print advertising Improves your Bottom Line
Print advertising is continuing to show that it can have a major impact on your sales. Without a major impact on the bottom line. Especially around the holidays. This is because many print publications offer awesome deals and unique opportunities. Even on great insert sections around the holidays which produce great results.
USA Today is offering their first ever full color USA Today Shop for Gifts section this year. This is big news for small businesses. Especially those that may not want to spend an arm and a leg on advertising this season in order to see a return on their investment. National Newspapers like USA Today are almost always displayed prominently in Hotels, Airports, and even Starbucks all across the country. This makes them an especially great opportunity to include in your holiday advertising budget, if you are trying to target last minute shoppers or travelers in route to their holiday destination.
Advertising is more expensive than in the past!
Last year studies showed that advertising spends were up across the board for nearly all traditional gift categories in the fourth quarter. “ Advertisers in every category spent more on advertising during last year’s fourth quarter holiday season than they did five years ago, with tech products (26%), video games (23%), books (21%), kitchen/cookware (46%) and jewelry (42%) leading the charge.” ( Neilson.com )
But the doesn’t mean you have to break the bank to produce a far reach and effective campaign to sell products this holiday season. The accessibility of USA Today means that it is seen by nearly 5 million people every single day. These audiences include those that are online and off. In fact USA Today readers accounted for almost 2 billion in merchandise spending so far in 2015.
Print Media is also incredibly efficient at reaching high income households. This is because professionals and trade publications in many industries rely heavily on industry and trade publications. Trade publications provide reliable references for leading-edge research. As well as expert commentary, and even recruitment purposes. This means that not only are you able to target by interest or income level but also by demographic. Despite what society might lead you to believe research still continues to show that print is a true powerhouse in the advertising world. Additionally a combination of digital advertising and print advertising are your best bet. This combination is great for producing a high quality campaign that will produce the highest possible ROI this holiday season.
