Entries by Darren Stevens

The end of an era

It was with more than a little sadness we heard on Wednesday of the decision to stop publishing The Gloucestershire Echo and Gloucester Citizen as daily newspapers and instead to publish them as a weekly paper. Now to put this into context I am of a generation that I still recall as a child rushing down to the Post Office in Churchdown to buy my copy of the now long gone “Pink Un” to catch that day’s football results. So to me at least this does feel like something of an end of an era.

The decision will not have come as a huge surprise to many. In many areas, local newspapers have had to make this switch quite a number of years ago. Indeed it is testament to the quality of the Echo and Citizen product that they have been able to last as long as they have. So what has led to this decision? The single biggest factor has been the explosion of mobile devices and use of social media and consumption of news through this channel. There is a touch of irony that the success of www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk and @GlosLiveOnline with its 18.1k followers will have hastened this move. I cannot have been the only person receiving it through my letterbox, to feel that I have pretty much read all the stories by the time I get my copy. The papers home delivery service will also cease at the same time.

I would like to pay homage though to the way the announcement was made which seemed pretty much a textbook case of a well co-ordinated exercise of this nature, that focussed strongly on the positives as the Group saw them.

The decline is circulation of newspapers has seen a corresponding fall in revenues. Whilst this has been compensated to some extent by diversification into digital offerings, it hasn’t fully. Research by Enders Analysis, the media research firm has shown that for every £154 in print revenue lost, newspapers only gained £5 on the digital side. The same research organisation predicts that from the heady heights of 2011 national newspaper advertising revenues will fall from £1.5 billion to £533 million by 2019.

It is not just a decline in readers though that has prompted advertisers to move their advertising spend. For some years now businesses have been increasingly wanting to be able to prove the worth of every pound of marketing spend (often referred to as Return on Investment). Digital forms of marketing have a huge advantage in this regard and are not reliant on the human error involved in tracking offline marketing. Thanks to tools like Google Analytics and goal setting, firms can measure the number of people driven to their website by online activity, the extent of engagement with the site and actions taken.

So when is this all happening and what will the new product look like? The last daily editions of The Gloucestershire Echo and Gloucester Citizen will come out on Saturday 7th October. Probably a good one to advertise in as the circulation is likely to be much higher than normal as people buy the last copy for posterity. The edition is also likely to be kept by some and is bound to find its way into time capsules all over the county. The first weekly edition of both papers is due to come out on Thursday 12th October. Predicted print runs of each of the new weeklies are a minimum of 12,500 each for The Citizen and the Gloucestershire Echo (this compares with 7,000 each day for the Citizen and just under 7,000 for the Echo). The combined readership is predicted to be 31,000.

The new weekly papers will have 86 pages, plus a 64 page Property Supplement, 20 page Motors section and a Business Section. There will also continue to be a GL Weekend Magazine of some 64 pages. The weekly will adopt a campaigning and community stance, as key daily news will be featured on www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk . Early indications are that the increased print run and anticipated increase in readership will lead to price increases compared with those currently paid for the same size advert in each title. How will businesses react to this? It remains to be seen, but some will undoubtedly adopt a “wait and see approach” to see how the titles perform against predictions. Certain day of the week sensitive ads may go elsewhere and for certain crowded categories the fact that their adverts are guaranteed to clash with those of their competitors will be less welcome.

To coincide with the move to weekly, Trinity Mirror is looking to put more emphasis on its own digital marketing product range and the group are holding two breakfast events in the county this week. This will not be easy though, as this market is already relatively crowded with a wide range of providers.

We wish Trinity Mirror all the best with the new weekly titles, as we consider press still to have a part to play in many firms marketing calendars, albeit a reduced part. Hopefully whilst this is the end of one era, it will be the beginning of another.

Darren Stevens – Managing Director – Prestbury Marketing

Research shows that the average person sees 5,000 advertising messages a day (compared with 2,000 a day 30 years ago). If you need help with deciding where your marketing should go, then speak to us.

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The power of Social Media

Social media isn’t just there to grow your brand and connect with old friends, when done correctly, the big platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram can play a key role in creating new business leads and attracting new customers.

Let’s take a look at how Trumps triumphant yet surprising win in the USA presidency last week has been marked as ‘the first true social media election’ of all time. We know that social media is forever growing in users; since the USA election in 2012, Facebook now boasts more than 60% monthly active users along with Twitter’s influx of more than 185 million users. This substantial increase in active users made social media the obvious option for reaching voters and creating global conversation. The Wall Street Journal summed the situation up nicely when it said the “traditional media” and the Democratic and Republican parties have lost “dominance” of public opinion to the “digital revolution.”

Trump and Clinton succeeded by getting people to talk both about and with them. Both candidates had an on-going relay in campaign messaging, barely missing a day without updating Twitter. The power of social media has had a similarly positive impact on helping businesses create leads and reach new consumers, just like Trump and Clinton searching for voters. We see typically between 5% and 15% of our clients web traffic coming from social media to see whether you are achieving this you do of course have to monitor the evaluation tools of each form of social media and google analytics.

Some of the key features on social media can allow businesses to create free engaging content, set up paid for adverts, upload 360 degree imagery and post live footage in order to potentially reach thousands and thousands of people.

We’ve listed a few pointers to help your business shine on social media:

1. Keep content regular – It is important that you’re constantly posting on social media, we don’t mean every minute of everyday but enough to ensure your business is being seen and your content is fresh in users mind.

It can take a little while for you to build social media followers, it never happens in an instant but the more engaging content you upload the more interaction you are likely to receive thus driving website traffic and increasing likes, comments, click through’s and shares. Focus also on growing a relevant audience and not just chasing numbers for numbers sake.

What level of frequency should you aim for? We suggest you begin sharing up to two Facebook posts, 10 – 30 tweets and 3 – 5 Instagram posts a week.

2. Be engaging – The most engaging content on social media requires images, videos, links and graphics to be uploaded with your posts. This will increase the chances of your content being seen as users are more likely to interact and click play to watch short videos than they are to engage with words on there own.

3. Do your research – These days you’ll find the majority of businesses are using social media and moving their marketing budget towards digital and social media advertising but we are a big believers in doing research first, then testing and evaluating..

We recommend you distinguish where your audience is online, what platforms do they use? What is their daily routine, the times when they are online? Can you find key hashtags being used in your industry? Are there any popular conversations or weekly Twitter chats you can join in on?

4. Stay connected and honest – As well as posting your own content and driving traffic to your website, the key to creating new business leads on social media is to keep up to date with users in your industry, stay connected, follow competitors and find the top influencers that can help your content be seen by others.

Building an honest and positive brand reputation online is crucial. Once your live on social media pretty much all your content can be seen, reviews can be read and follower stats can be found. Consumers look at social media accounts when deciding on a purchase, make sure you are delivering content that says what’s exactly on the tin. Also finally, don’t forget the value and benefit of watching social media, it is not just enough to post and share, you need to respond to and interact with your customers.

We offer various levels of social media management as well as social media training, so if your social media marketing could do with a boost please get in touch.