Print newspapers are dead - now what?

Australia's largest print media publisher, News Corp Australia, announced two weeks ago they will be closing 36 suburban and regional newspapers and making a further 76 digital only.

The changes will begin to roll out as of 29 June, which is another hard hit to Australian businesses who rely on newspaper ads to market their business. This news has timed with figures from digital marketing service Localsearch showing an increase in demand for phone books, with requests for books almost doubling in the month of May to the month prior.

Now newspaper advertising is slowly becoming a thing of the past, businesses will need to find alternative options for marketing their products and services. To help, Localsearch has collated a list of the top 5 marketing options under $1,000 to help make the transition easier.

Five marketing options under $2,000 to replace print newspaper advertising

1. Phone books

For regional communities, phone books remain a crucial marketing strategy. In 2020, Localsearch will distribute more than 1.7 million phone books throughout Australia to meet the demand from these regional communities, which has already seen an increase in demand due to the decline of print newspapers.

While the average price for a newspaper ad ranges from $600 to $3,500 for each time it's run ($31,000+ a year), phone book advertising starts at as little as a dollar a day, coming in at well under $2,000 a year.

2. Website subscriptions

While investing in a website is essential, finding the funds to cover the up-front cost can be difficult for new or small businesses. The solution can be found in website subscriptions.

A website subscription allows businesses to lock in a fixed weekly amount in exchange for keeping a site online. These prices tend to be a lot lower in the long-run than a full up-front cost website as the business can cancel their subscription if they no longer need their website.

Localsearch has 5-page website subscriptions starting from $29 a week, which includes hosting. This is only $1,508 a year to keep your brand online 24/7, compared to newspaper ads, which can amount to $30,000+ to run for a year.

3. Social media marketing

It is estimated an average of 16.3 million Australians read newspapers. In comparison, there are 19 million active social media users in Australia alone, with this number tipping into the billions globally.

However, social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, are businesses, so they alter their algorithms to limit the reach of organic business posts. This is to encourage use of their paid advertising platforms. These ad platforms are notorious for being tricky to use for the untrained business owner, resulting in many businesses resorting to boosting, which is essentially a waste of time and money.

To help businesses access social media marketing and make it both effective in costs and results, Localsearch has released a Social Savings Package. The package includes ad spend and the expertise of Localsearch's social media specialists, starting from only $59 a week. Again, this comes in well under $1,000 a month.

4. Local search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is to a website what a motor is to a boat. The boat keeps you afloat, but the motor is what gets you going.

As seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, SEO trends change very quickly, and if your website isn't prepared, you can lose any results you had in a single day. These changes often occur too fast for a busy business owner to keep up with, so to help, Localsearch has released a Local SEO Relief package, starting from $19 a week.

This package will cover all the basics you need to target people in your area, directing them to your website for more information. And for only $19 a week, that's the price of a decent pub lunch!

5. Online directories

When you advertise in a print newspaper, you're normally only paying to display your ad in one print run. By utilising phone book advertising with Localsearch, you're also increasing your exposure on their online directory, localsearch.com.au.

On average, the Localsearch Online Directory receives more than 2 million page views, and has a total review count of more than 100,000. So, not only are you receiving the millions of phone book receivers, you're reaching millions of people online too.

Advertising on localsearch.com.au is included in the phone book advertising price, starting from as little as a dollar a day.

For more information on any of Localsearch's advertising options, visit business.localsearch.com.au.

This article is brought to you by Localsearch.

Business News Australia