Industry Trends Help Business Print Magazines

New print publishing trends and innovative marketing options offer good news for business periodical publishers seeking to boost subscribers and advertising for their print versions. The growth of digital readership has not doomed all printed periodicals to declining circulation and revenues, as some predicted. In fact, a recent What’s New in Publishing article cites multiple ways print magazines are adapting for growth. For example, publishers are focusing on niche audiences willing to pay more for a higher grade product and cutting down on frequency. Consider the Harvard Business Review: It grew its subscriber base 10% by reducing print frequency from 10 issues to six a year and using smart positioning, creative new digital benefits, and heavier investment in the quality of the six print issues to increase audience appeal. Printed information is also seen as more reliable by readers and advertisers, according to research, creating a "halo effect" for business publishers with a print edition. "The good news for printed business magazines is that their credibility has a halo effect on their websites, too, which gives them a competitive advantage over digital-only competitors. People may be buying fewer magazines, but they still associate them with quality and reliability," explains the publishing industry’s Dead Tree Edition blog. Plus, despite fears that younger business readers were turning mainly to digital sources and social media for information, publishers can take advantage of continued print readership popularity. For example, the Association of Magazine Media’s "Magazine Media Factbook 2018-2019" shows that, in the United States, "the top 25 print magazines reach more adults and teens than the top 25 prime time shows." Meanwhile, new print technologies and a revival of traditional marketing tools offer business periodicals options for boosting audience and advertiser appeal. A recent article from media agency Mediaspace Solutions cites some ideas that publishers can leverage. With the digital space crowded, noisy and less trusted by potential readers, direct mail campaigns have increased in effectiveness, the post notes. Plus, many publishers have returned to sending printed newsletters to subscribers. Print technologies (QR codes, augmented reality, etc.) are not only tools for better direct mail response but also a way to attract print advertisers by boosting print advertising effectiveness, the post points out. For example, augmented print stacks digital content over a print ad so that when the print ad is scanned by a smartphone, a new digital ad springs to life. Personalization is a must in today’s marketing, and business publishers can combine list segmentation with variable data printing to personalize direct mail campaigns for audience building. Plus, subscriber list segmentation can be offered to print advertisers to help them craft more targeted messages. See the full post on our website blog at https://www.acculist.com/industry-marketing-trends-help-grow-printed-business-publications/

2019 Marketing Creative: Simple, Bold, Interactive

A new year brings new marketing creative inspirations for both digital and printed promotions, and some interesting trends are shaping up, per graphics and ad agency experts.The Ballantine and Brand Shouter agencies and the Digital Agency Network suggest some key digital creative trends to embrace this year, including more clean, minimalist designs and less use of borders, bars and boxes to separate elements. At the same time, minimalist doesn't mean drab; more designers are forecast to embrace bright colors and bold color transitions and gradients with black or white text. And speaking of type, Brand Shouter foresees more beautiful, complimentary, brand-consistent typography as well, especially since marketers are shifting toward more text-only designs, while DAN forecasts more use of multicolored vector fonts. Plus, thanks to print technology advances, metallics will rise in popularity to pop in simplified designs, per DAN. Meanwhile, the minimalist flat look, which works well in mobile presentations, also can be livened with the inclusion of 3D elements, as Apple is doing, notes Brand Shouter. And since everything old is new again at some point, several retro trends are forecast. DAN sees use of the bold duotone graphics of the 1970s as well as vintage fonts and motifs, while Ballantine thinks the bright colors and funky designs of the 1990s and early 2000s, which remind many of today’s designers and target buyers of childhood, will reappear to leverage nostalgia. Finally, hand-drawn illustrations will be used to create that feeling of originality and authenticity, predicts DAN. Meanwhile, Ballantine underscores three ubiquitous trends for all creative this year. Video will only continue its impact in marketing, especially in social media, now that 54% of Internet users watch social media videos at least monthly and 65% of ad impressions on Instagram come from video ads, making video a necessary part of most creative budgets. Story-telling over selling is another general trend, especially in social media advertising, where story ads are designed to reflect a platform's personal user experience rather than slick promotion, mimicking a post from a friend. Finally, marketing design must cater to mobile users now that 57% of online searches originate on mobile devices, almost 50% of web page views worldwide occur on mobile devices, and 95% of Americans own a cellphone and 57% own a smartphone. Any creative that is not mobile-optimized is sacrificing a huge market. For more on creative trends, plus a useful infographic, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/2019-marketing-creative-simple-bold-interactive-design/

2018 Offers New Publishing Growth Opportunities

Business and consumer publications face some pivotal audience- and revenue-building challenges, but there are also growth opportunities in 2018. We note three potential positives recently highlighted by Publishing Executive magazine. Audiences are increasing their demand for quality content, and advertisers are seeking publishers who can deliver that quality, so there is a lot of untapped revenue potential for publishers who commit to quality. This is especially true since the free-information era is ending as readers become wary of free but low-value content and increasingly willing to pay for reliable quality. For digital publishers, the downside of a shift to paid content can be a shrinkage of circulation, forcing them to balance potential subscription revenue against lower ad page-views. The Publishing Executive article offers mitigating tactics: leaky paywalls; metered paywalls; charging only for premium content; allowing only paid subscribers to comment or participate in an online community; early access to certain articles for paid subscribers, etc. Meanwhile, with daily access to vast amounts of information in print, online, media and social, mass-market-oriented print and digital publications have been struggling, and niche publishers proliferating. Readers want to focus on what’s relevant to their specific interests, and many advertisers want to reach the right pool of people more than just the largest pool of people. The trick for publications is to embrace niche demand without sacrificing too much circulation. The Publishing Executive article offers some suggestions. Digital publications can create a product-within-a-product on the website, for example, with content targeted to a subset of the normal audience and attractive to new sponsors who want to reach that specific audience. For print publications, there are niche-targeted inserts, bonus sections, customized covers, polybagged special reports, or ad packages that combine a full-page magazine ad with a niche-targeted cover wrap or insert. Finally, brand advertisers have become concerned about aligning with publishers who tolerate fake news, violence, extremism, or other offensive content. This means that respected publishers can court advertising revenue (and circulation) in 2018 by stressing brand quality and safety in their promotions. On that point, Publishing Executive quotes from an Advertising Age piece in which Shelagh Daly Miller of AARP declared: "Only when brands partner with reputable publishers can they have full confidence in where their ads are being placed. That’s a message that should be all over our industry’s media kits. And tattooed onto the foreheads of our ad reps." For more on publishing opportunity trends, see http://www.acculistusa.com/2018-offers-new-growth-opportunities-for-publishing-marketers/

Event Marketing Channels, Attendees Not in Sync

Where should trade show and conference marketers go fishing for potential audience? In a multi-channel world, it can be challenging to balance online, e-mail, print and social media for best results. Now a recent survey by XING Events, as reported by MarketingProfs, shows interesting gaps between where event marketers are casting their nets and where potential attendees pool to research events. According the the XING Events study, which is based on a global survey of 2,621 event attendees and 1,630 event organizers, event attendees most often learn about work-related events through word-of-mouth mention by friends and acquaintances (66%) and via e-mail newsletters (59%). Fewer event attendees (20%) report being influenced by ads for print and online professional publishing. Online search has more impact when the audience is already aware of the event; for example, 49% say they use online search to find details about trade shows or conferences they already have heard about (via word-of-mouth, e-mail or print). Just 22% learn about an event by doing keyword searches. However, an even smaller portion (16%) of event attendees report that they use social media to research events. Event marketers don't exactly mirror attendees' preferences. About 89% of surveyed event organizers say they market their events through their own websites, culling search traffic. Some 76% say they market through e-mail newsletters, which is in line with attendee activity. The surprise is that 73% of event pros say they promote via social media even though it is not where most of the audience is currently looking for event information. And about 47% use traditional print channels. Despite its current lower usage among event attendees, social media is the marketing channel that most event marketers (65%) plan to grow in future. For more on the survey, see our blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/survey-mismatches-in-event-marketing-channels-attendee-interest/

2016 Marketing Spend Seen Up for Most Channels

Marketers will be boosting spending for almost all marketing channels in 2016, according to the latest Winterberry Group forecast reported by Direct Marketing News magazine. Election-year politics and the Olympics are seen as key marketing drivers this year. Overall, data-driven channels, both direct and digital, are expected to grow by 6.4%, with the biggest bump for digital display (desktop and mobile), which is predicted to rise by 20.1%. Search and e-mail will also increase by 11.4% and 8.7%, respectively, per the Winterberry forecast. Still in the mix, direct mail will hold its own, boosted by electioneering, with an expected 0.4% rise. As a result, data spending to support direct mail, e-mail and display (lists, database management and hygiene, analytics) will see 1.1% growth. The only exceptions to the marketing growth trends are magazine and newspaper ads (forecast down 1.9% and 6 %, respectively), along with flat budgets expected for cinema, insert media and radio. Watch for programmatic ad spending to continue surging, grabbing a larger share of display budgets and driving up data spends, advise analysts. Plus, video, which exploded in 2015, is still on the upswing, per Winterberry. For forecast details, read the full article at http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-strategy/2016-will-be-a-growth-year-in-marketing-spending/article/469545/

Direct Mail Gains Traction With 2016 Retailers

Direct mail, previously declining in retail use, is finding greater favor with 2016 retailers, according to a Direct Marketing News magazine report on a new AgilOne study.  Although 33% of 150 surveyed bricks-and-clicks retailers still said they would cut direct mail spending this year, that's lower than the 39% who were backing off direct mail in 2015. AgilOne cited better targeting and personalization for reversal of mail's downward retail trend, reports DM News. In contrast, print and TV advertising spends, which fell last year, will keep sliding in 2016 per retailing respondents. Digital--websites and e-mail--continue as priority channels. However, effective "omnichannel" marketing still eludes many merchants, with the 34% claiming a unified customer view across channels offset by the 37% reporting no unified customer view, and more than half admitting lack of a cohesive omnichannel strategy. For the whole story, go to http://www.dmnews.com/direct-mail/survey-retailers-will-stick-with-direct-mail-in-2016/article/467674/

Get Ready for 2016 Ad Rate Rises Across Channels

U.S. advertising rates are set to rise for almost all channels in 2016, according to a MarketingProfs report of forecasting by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and Havas Media. The ad cost bump is partly driven by higher ad demand from presidential elections and the Summer Olympics, per the forecast. So it's not surprising that the biggest jumps are forecast for television ad rates: a 3.8% increase for national broadcast TV, a 5.5% rise for cable TV and a whopping 13% leap for spot TV. The good news is that digital channels, where supply is expected to offset demand, are mostly set for very modest increases in average CPMs: mobile, online video and Internet/display advertising all up just 1%, although paid search rates is expected to show a 3.3% jump. For traditional print, average CPM increases are moderate, with a 2.5% climb for newspaper ad rates and a 3% bump in magazine rates. Network radio is the only channel forecast to drop in cost, down 1%. For a comparison of ad rate trends by channel from 2010 through 2016, see the MarketingProfs article: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2016/29142/2016-advertising-rate-increases-forecast-for-nearly-all-channels

Brand Marketers Are Ignoring Consumer Preferences

U.S. brand marketers model communications on a dictatorship rather than a democracy, consistently ignoring consumer preferences for channel and frequency, according to a recent study by MarketingSherpa. Indeed, the gap between consumer preference and marketer practice is often wide enough that many brands shouldn't be surprised at a profit-burning customer revolt. A useful infographic of research results, based on surveys of more than 2,000 consumers and 455 brand marketers, was recently created by Direct Marketing News magazine. Among the findings, although 54% of consumers say they prefer to receive promotions via print mail, only 19% of brand marketers send out print materials. Instead, 90% of marketers blast e-mails, even though only 60% of consumers say they want to get e-mail promos. And once they've chosen to woo consumers via e-mail, marketers time messages to suit themselves; 76% of companies base e-mail frequency on their own needs, even though only 24% of consumers want that brand-determined frequency. Of course, marketers are enticed by social media popularity, so 77% of those surveyed offer customers the opportunity to follow brands on social media. The problem is that only 20% of consumers want to receive company updates and promotions via social media. Similar overfishing of digital waters occurs with online ads, with 60% of marketers using online advertising, even though just 27% of consumers say they discover new products via online ads. For more details from the DM News infographic, go to  http://www.dmnews.com/infographics/marketers-ignore-consumers-right-to-vote-infographic/article/453627/

Digital, Mobile Fuel Big 2014 Ad Spend Growth

Mobile advertising is rising with the force of a tidal wave, forecast to reach 67.8% of all U.S. digital ad spending by 2018, according to the latest report from eMarketer. In fact, digital ad growth (including mobile) already is the key factor in doubling total worldwide ad spending this year. Global media ad spending (for print, TV and radio, outdoor and digital) will increase 5.7% in 2014 alone, eMarketer projects, more than double the growth rate of 2.6% from a year ago. The U.S. market takes the lion's share of those ad dollars, with total U.S. ad spending set to surpass $180 billion this year, equal to nearly one-third of the worldwide total. Digital channels are the driving force of advertising growth for 2014 and beyond: eMarketer estimates that global digital ad spending will increase 16.7% this year, totaling $140.15 billion and surpassing 25% of all media ad spending for the first time. And within the digital category, mobile is the catalyst. Advertising on tablets and smartphones will increase 84.7% worldwide in 2014 to reach $32.71 billion this year, or nearly one-quarter of the digital advertising spend globally, eMarketer estimates.Those trends are forecast to continue until digital snags a 32.3% share of global paid ad spending by 2018, with mobile making up over 50% of those worldwide digital ad budgets. For more details of the report, see http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Global-Ad-Spending-Growth-Double-This-Year/1010997

Print marketing is alive and well in the digital age, according to a recent Pitney Bowes survey that found 76% of small businesses say their ideal marketing strategy encompasses a combination of both print and digital communication. Meanwhile, traditional direct mail still has a 43% share of total local retail advertising. A recent Marketing Profs article listed several reasons that printed marketing communications continue to thrive. For one thing, technology has expanded the power of print, from variable printing's ability to create complex personalization of text and images, to QR code and NFC (near-field communication) technology that make it possible, via mobile, for print media to directly connect customers to a website. And don't forget the omnipresent integration of social networking into printed pieces. With noisier digital spaces and less cluttered mailboxes, printed materials have a competitive advantage over digital; they have a better chance to stand out and receive more time and attention than their online brethren. Today's printed materials also go beyond flat pieces of printed paper to encompass dimensional direct mail and printed promotional items boasting lower average cost per impression than online ads, such as magnets, stickers, pens, or even apparel such as T-shirts. A 2010 Direct Marketing Association study found that $1.00 spent on print advertising can generate an average of $12.57 in sales, and print's high return ratio was found to be universal across all industries. No wonder small businesses, and big businesses, are keeping print marketing and direct mail in the mix! For more, see the article at http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/24084/print-marketing-will-thrive-in-2014-and-beyond

Auto Parts Retailer's Mobile Response Kills Print Ads

The power of mobile advertising was impressively demonstrated recently by Advance Auto Parts, a retailer previously relying on print ads and TV to drive online and in-store sales, reported Business Insider. Advance Auto Parts ran a promotion simultaneously in print and online, offering digital coupons through RetailMeNot. The auto parts retailer reaped a redemption rate for mobile coupon ads of 30%, compared to less than 1% for the print ads. "While they reached less people with [the mobile ads], the [return on investment] for them was great and the ability to target for them was great," Jag Bath, senior vice president of product at RetailMeNot, told Business Insider. The mobile coupon success for a traditional brand also shows the effectiveness of mobile beyond the Internet-savvy younger audience, Bath added. "It isn't just about millennials," he asserted. "Mobile offers can drive foot traffic for more traditional, established brands like Advance Auto Parts." For the story, see http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-coupons-are-killing-print-advertising-2013-11

Augmented Reality Challenges QR in Print-to-Mobile

With print-to-mobile marketing growing, the scale and engagement of "augmented reality" image recognition is wooing some publishers and advertisers away from QR codes and tags. Augmented reality certainly has a fan in publisher Meredith Corp. A recent Mobile Marketer story quoted Doug Crichton, director of mobile engagement at Meredith: “Digital watermarks unduly complicated our editorial production processes, and QR codes/Microsoft Tags weren't moving the needle. So far, augmented reality is driving more reader engagement than QRs/Tags did.” Earlier this year, Meredith rolled out a branded augmented reality application for editorial and advertising in its four parents network titles: Parents, American Baby, FamilyFun and Ser Padres. Meanwhile, Time Inc.’s lifestyle group is using digital watermarks in several publications, including watermarketing a MyRecipes cook book so consumers can save recipe info for grocery shopping. Similar to augmented reality, the draw of the digital watermarks is that they do not cover up the images on pages, which suited Time's reliance on big pictures in recipes. That's not to say that QR codes have fallen by the wayside, especially when the goal is to drive traffic. QR codes immediately signal consumers that there is a mobile component to a printed piece for quick lead generation. As a result, many marketers are balancing the advantages of print-to-mobile options by using different forms of technology at the same time, the Mobile Marketer story notes. P&G’s CoverGirl recently used a combination of QR codes and augmented reality on pages within Condé Nast’s September issues of Allure and Vogue, for example. See the complete story at http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/16338.html

Print Reading Audiences Post Growth in 2013

If you believe the Digital Age dooms print marketing, check out the latest print audience figures for this year. Print reading audiences are posting growth, according to spring 2013 data released by measurement firm GfK MRI. Of the 181 magazine titles surveyed, about 42%, or 76 titles, saw print audience size increase by 5% or more from spring 2012 to spring 2013. About 35 publications saw audiences grow from 5% to 10%. Another 41 magazines saw gains of 10% or more, with 11 of the 41 titles growing readership by more than 20% year-over-year. The big winner was Diabetes Forecast, with a whopping increase of 48.73%. Of course, some titles lost readership. About 15 publications reported losses between 5% and 10%, with 12 losing 10% or more. The biggest loser was Meredith’s FamilyFun magazine, which reported a drop of 23.28%. When the digital audience (excluding Web traffic) is added to print readership, even more publishers have reason to celebrate growth. With combined digital and print audience, 39 publications saw audience gains between 5% and 10%, and 42 magazine titles saw gains of 10% or more when comparing the spring 2012 to 2013. For more, see the Folio report at http://www.foliomag.com/2013/magazine-audience-sizes-flat-growing-gfk-mri-numbers#.UgpLy9KyByI