Can you say “dying industry”? How about “creative destruction”? You are reading this blog on a digital platform, and that is, in short, why the newspaper industry, not so long ago the monarch of news dissemination in the United States, is on the way out. To be more accurate, actually Craigslist is even more important, having decimated classified advertising, by far the most lucrative market of the traditional newspaper, and now a rapidly fading memory. How ironic that a website with a peace logo is destroying the mainstay of the left-leaning mainstream media.
Note from the graph that data began being collected in 1950 when advertising spend was steadily increasing year over year until around 2000 where the annual spend quickly deceased. Making today’s data the lowest in history! Further note that in 1950, the population of the United States was about 180 million people, versus 330 million or more today. Not only had the methods for advertising changed but the cost has significantly gone down as digital marketing and US population has increased!
What’s the take away? 9 in 10 “business leaders” plan to either increase (46%) or maintain (47%) their marketing budgets in 2014, according to a recent survey from StrongView.. Respondents – from a mix of B2C and B2B companies primarily headquartered in North America – evaluated their spending plans across a variety of programs. The results reveal strong support for a variety of digital marketing channels, while traditional media budgets look like they’ll suffer.
So, if you already have a digital marketing campaign in place – good job! Stay on it, review your analytics, and continually test your campaigns using a variety of ads!
If you haven’t fully committed or have only dipped a toe into the digital marketing arena then now is the time, the boat has already left the shore!
Contact us if you would like help reviewing your analytics we can provide practical ideas on how to strengthen your campaigns to produce even more leads. If you are new to digital marketing we are here to help you get started.
References:
americanthinker.com/blog/2014/04/inflationadjusted_newspaper_print_advertising_revenues_now_below_1950_levels.html
marketingcharts.com/wp/online/2014-marketing-budget-plans-by-channel-38888/