Magazine Advertising - Pros and Cons
by Mike Brassel

Under certain circumstances, magazine advertising can play an important part in your overall marketing mix. Magazines are usually weekly or monthly publications. There are two categories: trade magazines and consumer magazines. Investigate which type would work best in your situation:

• - Trade magazines are publications targeting certain types of businesses, services and industries.
   
• - Consumer magazines are the type that you generally find at the news stand.

Advantages of Magazine Advertising

- The ability to reach specific audiences. They have highly defined readerships that allow you to focus on specific market niches. Specific groups can be reached by placing advertisements in magazines whose editorial content specializes in topics of interest to that specific target. For example, if you run an ad in an automotive magazine, you can be fairly sure the people who subscribe to it either own a car or truck, or are shopping for one.

- Relatively long ad life and repeated ad exposure. Magazines are often kept for months. Your message keeps selling.

- Excellent picture reproduction quality, and the paper is far superior to newsprint.

- Advertising messages are more image related and less price oriented

- Excellent pass-along value.

Many regional and national magazines include classified ad sections that may be useful for or selling individual products.

Disadvantages of Magazine Advertising

- Limited flexibility in terms of ad placement and format

- Higher production costs.

Magazine advertising is only one type of advertising. When allocating your advertising budget, it's important to consider several types - including radio, television, newspaper and direct mail - before making a final decision. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, which means some forms of advertising will fit your business better than others.

About the Author

Michael (Mike) Brassil is author of "The Only Business Start-Up Guide You Will Ever Need." Download two chapters -- Starting a New Business and The Home Working Revolution -- at: http://www.ImpactGuide.com.