This week’s question comes from Dale. Dale is looking into new mediums in which to advertise his services, and an old medium seems to lead the to his target audience. The question reads:
“I am looking to expand my business and am not sure how to get the word out. I own a mid-sized manufacturing shop that specializes in making custom parts for larger manufacturers, but I want to offer my service to smaller shops who might need a seasonal burst of production but cannot handle the ramp up. I’ve attended some trade shows recently, and the feedback I have received is that I need adverting. The best way to go seems to be print, even when I admit to not reading as much long-form, on-paper materials. But we’ve got plenty of trade magazines and sponsored material studies around the shop that should prove me wrong. My target customers all collect the material we would advertise in, but would they read it? Should I be leery of putting a chunk of my advertising budget into ‘dead tree’ marketing solutions?”