What is a magazine advertising?

Magazine advertising continues to be an effective form of communicating to targeted audiences. 

Even in the digital age, magazine advertising has not gone out of style.

Magazine advertisements refers to print ads that often run in local or national magazines. Think of all the pretty faces and new products you see in Vogue, Glamour, and Men’s Health.

While many argue that conventional methods of marketing are slowly becoming obsolete, print ads remain a mainstay in the advertising budgets of many companies. According to one survey, readers only glance through a website for about 15 seconds to two minutes. If your ad is placed at the end of a webpage, or in the corner, there is a good chance that readers will ignore it, which means very little return on digital ad investment. On the other hand, magazines are a great way to market services and products because not only do they have an effective ROI, they also have the following benefits:

5 Benefits of Magazine Advertising for Businesses

#1. Targeted Reach
Different magazines appeal to different audiences. For example, teenage girls may prefer to read Teen Vogue while teenage boys may read ESPN the Magazine. People who work from home may be more interested in magazines that cover topics such as entrepreneurship or work-life balance while working professionals may rely on business and economics magazines. Through magazine advertisements, you can find the right magazine for the right audience and place your ads strategically.

#2. Real Surpasses Virtual
Many people spend a lot of time online trying to chronicle their daily lives on Twitter or post the latest selfie to Instagram. However, since most readers only scan a website for 15 seconds before moving on, the real experience of actually reading a magazine surpasses the virtual one and can create a mind share – a share in the mind of the target customers.

#3. A Longer Shelf Life
Digital advertisements come and go. Companies sometimes must keep paying to ensure their ads are well-placed on websites and repeated every day. Magazines, on the other hand, are generally issued weekly or monthly. They have a longer “shelf life,” as they sit in doctors’ waiting rooms, magazine racks, boutiques, malls, and supermarkets. A magazine left in a doctor’s office will be read by countless patients for many months, and your ad can be seen by many of them.

#4. Brand Recognition and Credibility
Many magazines are well-respected among their target audience, so, when you advertise in such a reputable magazine, people can become familiar with your company and a level of trust is elevated. This recognition is then reinforced when they meet you in person, either at your place of business or at a local trade show or charity event. This not only builds brand recognition but, in time, brand loyalty. Advertisers can greatly benefit from this credibility when their ads are viewed not as ads but as recommendations from a trusted source.

#5. Pass-on Readership
Many people pass on magazines to their friends and family members. This most likely increases the reach of your advertisement to more potential customers.

While there are plenty of benefits, certain traps exist that marketers may fall into if they aren’t aware of effective magazine advertisement practices.

Magazine ads often need to be submitted weeks or even months before the issue is scheduled to be published. Therefore, it becomes important to have an effective marketing strategy in place. Testing ads is a crucial part of that process. Marketers must ensure that the advertisements are attractive enough to get the readers’ attention. Many companies spend a fortune on hiring the right designers and advertisers for this purpose.

One trap in this process is that your ad runs the risk of being shoveled into the graveyard of ads that get placed at the end of the magazine unless you pay more for premium positioning. Ads placed on the right-hand page are more expensive than those on the left-hand page. Sometimes, marketers must pay a premium for ads on the outside edge, as opposed to the center. This is because of the way readers’ eyes scan pages. The objective is to have a reader catch a glimpse of the ad while flipping through the pages.

Now that you know the major advantages and barriers to effective advertising, always remember to inquire about the following before you purchase ad space in any magazine:

• Magazine’s distribution channels
• Magazine’s demand and subscription numbers
• Magazine publication frequency

Understanding the distribution system and the demographics of readers as well as checking whether both coincide with the target market is always a wise decision and a key factor in selecting the right magazine for you.

A magazine ad gets your message in front of a self-selected, highly engaged consumer. Unlike some other media, magazines are carefully chosen by their readers (especially subscribers), so the time they spend with their favorite publications tends to be focused and enjoyable. 

Brand building

Established magazines have earned a trusted reputation and authority, and they share some of that hard-earned prestige with the advertisers who appear on their pages. Readers often assign more credibility to the magazine ads they encounter in these environments.

Ads are part of the experience

In some media, ads can be perceived as obstacles to be avoided—consumers can skip commercials, toss their mail without reading it, or use ad-blocking software. Magazine readers, on the other hand, tend to regard the advertising they see alongside the articles as part of the content.

High-quality production

Magazine publishers spend a lot of effort making sure their magazines look beautiful when they are printed. Special attention is paid to assure consistently clear, crisp images and balanced colors throughout the issue—and that includes the pages with ads. 

Lots of impressions

A magazine delivered to a household (or doctor’s office, or hair salon) is typically viewed by several people. That’s why magazines report a “readership” number as well as a circulation one. And each one of those people is likely to see your ad more than once over weeks or even months as they pick the issue up to finish an article or reread a favorite.

Magazines, along with newspapers, are the prominent print media used by advertisers to reach specific audiences. Magazine ads can be pricey for small businesses, but they do offer a highly targeted and interested audience. This can make them a more efficient advertising option relative to other less costly media.

The most basic element of a magazine ad is that the medium is print. Because of this, the message is static, unlike messages conveyed by radio or television commercials. In theory, target customers can read a magazine ad multiple times and for indefinite lengths of time in each exposure. Print ads do lack the dynamic, storytelling capabilities of broadcast media, and this lack must be overcome with strong copy and visual stimulation.

Magazine ads most often include a balance of written copy and visual imagery. Written text conveys specific benefits of a brand or product or presents the value proposition with clarity. Visual images attract reader attention, help set the tone for the message and contribute to the overall strategy of laying out product benefits. Some ads use lots of copy to explain complex products, while others use little to no copy and rely on visuals to make a memorable impression on readers.

Magazine ads are strewn about magazines in most cases. A common criticism of magazines -- and of newspapers -- is the hyper clutter of advertising that can overwhelm readers, making it difficult for a given ad to stand out. An advertiser has one of two options for her ad: a preferred position or a run of placement position. Preferred positions include spaces near the front, near the back cover and near featured stories. These ads cost more. Run of placement ads cost less than preferred-position ads, because the publication has flexibility in where the ad is placed.

Relative to other print media ads and ads in other media formats, magazine ads offer strong visual presentation due to the use of glossy pages and full color spreads. Magazine ads typically draw relatively high audience interest if they're placed in a specialized publication with a niche audience. On the downside, magazine ads are relatively expensive compared to newspaper ads, and placement requires a four to six week lead time, which impacts the timeliness of a message.

When it comes to magazine advertising, most people think of the large, glossy, national publications full of big brand advertisers. And it may seem like your own business doesn't belong alongside the "big guys," especially if you don't sell your product outside a one-hundred-mile radius--or even outside of your own state. But that's just not the case.

In fact, it's quite possible the next time you open one of those national magazines to see an ad for a business that's right in your own town that just has that one location. That's because, like a lot of other forms of advertising, many national magazines have local sections aimed at smaller businesses. Of course, these local sections are a bit larger than what you may be used to, covering such areas as the "Northeast" or the "Southwest" parts of the United States. So while you'll be reaching people way outside your neighborhood, you'll also attract local business (and may just wow the locals who see your ad on those pages).

Who should advertise in the local sections of the national magazines? Although it doesn't seem so at first blush, these ads are really good for small, "niche-y" stores that carry very specialized products, like hobby items. People will travel great distances to find a new supplier or expert or specialist for their hobby, and they'll spread the word of your existence to others with similar interests. These ads are also wonderful if you have locations in more than one area of any state or in more than one state. You can probably cover most or even all of them with just one ad if they all fall into one of those wide geographical areas that are sold as "local." Check the first few pages of any magazine to find contact information for the advertising department, where you can ask for a media kit and get information on rates and deadlines. And be sure to ask for a map that shows you what each local territory includes.

Of course, advertising in magazines with national distribution is going to be expensive even if you're only advertising in the local sections, and it's not be the way to go for most small or midsized businesses. You don't really need to cast such a large net--what you really need is to choose publications that are closely associated with your target market.

One option is to go really local with free magazines that you'd find in grocery stores or pharmacies. The focus of these types of publications is on home sales, cars, boats and other topics--you've probably picked up one yourself. Your business doesn't have to tie directly into the topics of any one of the magazines, as long as the readers of those magazines would also be interested in your product or service. Remember, it's the audience that counts, and you can find that audience in any number of places. The contact information for advertising in these publications will also be located within the first few pages. One thing to be aware of is that these types of free publications are published on different schedules, sometimes just a few times a year. And like most magazines, your deadline will be way ahead of publication, so don't wait until the last minute to call to place an ad.

One advantage of magazines, especially monthlies, is that they have a much longer shelf life than newspapers; they are often browsed through for months after publication. So your ad might have an audience for up to six months after its initial insertion. Moreover, readers spend more time per sitting with a magazine than a newspaper, so there's more chance they will run across your ad.

No matter which type of publication you're buying space in, be sure to ask the following questions before you purchase any ad space:

• What's the magazine's circulation?
• What are the demographics of the readers?
• How often is the magazine published?
• How is it distributed?
• What are the special sections or themes planned for the year?

Also note that you have the opportunity with all magazines to save money on each ad by agreeing to run an ad in more than one issue. In fact, before you buy space in any magazine, it's a good idea to see which businesses that are targeting the same audience as you advertise in each magazine on a consistent basis. Remember, if the ads weren't working, they wouldn't be there issue after issue.

You can find publications that are appropriate for your advertising needs by looking through references such as the directories put out by the Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS). The SRDS directories list all the relevant information about consumer and trade publications, including a short description of each publication, its editorial content, who the publication goes out to, and breakdown of circulation figures. Using this information, you can compile a list of publications suitable for your advertising.

For more in-depth information, contact an ad representative at each publication you've chosen and request a media kit. These contain sample copies of the publication, detailed information about the editorial content, a breakdown of readers' demographics, the publication's ad rates, and an audited circulation statement from the publisher.

There are two primary audits: the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), and the Business Publications Audit (BPA). Audited circulations are sworn statements by the publisher, verified by an outside source, that the publication is distributed to the number of people claimed in the circulation figures.

With this information in hand, you can judge the cost-effectiveness of advertising in a publication by determining the relationship between its circulation and the ad rates. This ratio is your CPM, or cost per thousand. For example, if the circulation is 30,000 and the rate for a full-page ad is $600, divide $600 by 30. You'd see that advertising in this publication would cost $20 to reach each thousand readers.

As well as finding out each publication's CPM, inquire about what kind of deals you can work out with the ad rep from each publication. For example, you can sometimes negotiate for special positioning in the publication; inside the front cover, on the back cover, or within the first few pages of the book are prime locations for ads. Publications will often charge an additional 10 to 20 percent of the ad's cost for special positioning, but if you're a good negotiator, you can sometimes get it for no additional charge. Always ask for your ad to be placed in the first third of the publication (where readers are apt to read more closely) on a right-hand page, which is not considered special positioning.

You can also negotiate with the ad rep on a frequency discount. If you run your ad three times, six times or 12 times instead of just once, you'll get a reduced rate for each insertion. Publications have standard frequency discounts by the SRDS directory or on the rate card the ad rep gives you, but often the rep can give you an even better deal than the standard frequency discounts if you run your ad on a regular schedule and if the rep wants your business.

Most magazines also offer to place ads on their website, sometimes at a very reasonable rate--even for free--if you're advertising in their hard copy issues. If you can swing it and you're interested in selling worldwide or reaching a wider audience in your own hometown, this is a great idea. Be sure to put your web address, or URL, on every print ad, no matter where it runs, and put a link on your online ad that takes people directly to your own site.

No matter what magazine you choose to advertise in, your message will need to be strong and eye-catching. You only have a few seconds to grab the readers' attention and pull them in to read the rest of the ad. A bold graphic and an interesting headline will help you make a connection with readers right off the bat. The graphic and the headline must come together to pinpoint a problem and offer a solution to the reader.