Traditionally, advertisers seeking to reach pulp and paper practitioners and buyers have had two avenues for doing so: magazine ads and direct mail.  We are not going to put either of them down, because they use lots of paper--and that's good.  In fact, we use some direct mail for our Paperitalo communications.  But there are some drawbacks and limitations for printed and mailed communications.  (And for Internet communications, as well.  But we'll get to that in a moment.)

Advertising in magazines requires choosing the right magazine(s).  We have identified 53 different pulp and paper journals and publications being published worldwide--including one each in Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, German, Swedish and Arabic.  Some are highly specialized about one aspect of p&p production and/or marketing, and some are intensely geographic--witness the variety of languages.  Yesterday's handful of monthly general purpose magazines have been replaced by a large basketful of specialized offerings known in the magazine business as "vertical" publications.  Choosing from among this plethora of mostly highly specialized publications is no simple matter.

Just as placing magazine ads requires research into purposes, content and circulation of magazines, direct mail advertising, done effectively, requires research into the content and quality of mailing lists--and whether the names and functions of the people on the lists are up to date.  Not to engage in this kind of research is merely to mail a lot of useless paper to a lot of "ghosts."  Of course, if you have developed--and continue to maintain--your own mailing list of known prospects and customers, you are ahead of the game.  But too many p&p suppliers have not done a good job of list creation and maintenance.

Internet advertising is not without costs, of course.  More than merely writing up an ad and putting a picture in it, Internet advertising requires thinking and planning for the total message-and-response cycle.  But it does tend strongly to reverse the scheme of printed advertising, whether in publications or mailings, which is to push messages out in the hope of attracting some attention.  Online advertising, on the other hand, posts messages in front of prospects who are actively seeking information about the products and services they need.  They are not riffling the pages of magazines or casually giving your letter/brochure a glance.  They are actually searching on the Internet for information about the products and services they need.

For more information about how Paperitalo Publications can help you get a leg up on your competitors, call Helen Roush at 937-403-8602 or email her at helen.roush@taii.com. She will be happy to hear from you and quick to assist you.

Chuck Swann is Senior Editor of Paperitalo Publications.