Don’t believe what you’ve read in the news or seen on the television, print advertising isn’t dead. As long as there is print media, there will be print advertising. We’re not suggesting that you take out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, but if you’re a small fitness business that is trying to get new business, you might want to look into an advertisement in your local newspaper. Print advertising isn’t going anywhere, it’s just evolving. Instead of flashy billboard, companies are trying to get more action from the people viewing their ads. Below are three ways that you can make your future print advertising more effective.

Make Sure Your Ads have a Call to Action

Unless you’re a company like Nike that can do purely brand marketing, you’re going to need to test the effectiveness of your advertisements. That said, it’s very important that you include a call-to-action in your print advertising. What do you want people to do after they see your message? Come in and show a coupon, text a keyword, mention a special offer, say a password? Whatever it is, you need a way to know that the person who came in, came in because of your advertisement. If you can’t test the conversation rate of your advertisement, you’ll never know if it was a worthy investment. With FitnessTexter, you can add your special texting promotion to the bottom of your advertisement. Then, every time someone sees your ad and texts your keyword, you’ll know that the lead is coming from your FitnessTexter keyword.

Have a Quality Designer Do Your Graphic Work

Just looking at the advertisement to the left hurts my eyes. There’s way too much going on that you can’t really even focus on any specific part of the advertisement. Do yourself a favor and have a professional design your print advertisement for you. We’re fond of our good friend Mat Vogels. He’s a talented designer and does quick work. Even though your cousins’s friend’s sister knows how to do photoshop, that doesn’t mean she’ll be the best choice to design your advertisement. Agencies can be expensive, but they can also design something that will pay for itself for years. Remember, in the business world, it takes money to make money.

Include Address & Contact Information

If you’re a fitness business, which you probably are since that’s who reads our blog, it’s necessary that you include your address and contact information in the advertisement. People are extremely lazy these days. If they don’t know how to get in touch with the business that they just saw, there’s a good chance that they never will. Make it as easy as possible for your future clients to get in contact with you. If you were clever and added a call-to-action to your advertisement, even better. Either way, give them your address, and maybe, just maybe, include a little map so that they can find your facility with ease. The easier you make it for people to redeem your offer, the better.

Employ Several Different Print Advertising Mediums

You’re going to have to make some choices when you decide to start doing print advertising. One of these decisions is that you’re going to need to figure out where exactly you’ll be putting your advertisements. Do you want them on billboards, magazines, flyers around town, etc. Most businesses seem to think that having one billboard is all you need to have in order to market your business. Wrong! You should have utilizing a multi-medium advertising campaign that utilizes all major print advertising types.

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leadingsmart.com