"But Everything Is Online"

Time was tight as I raced up (30mph) Sharp Park Road for an appointment with Ira at Bedroom Express (that I now know is in San Bruno.) SIRI find directions to Bedroom Express in Daly City........ “here’s Panda xpress” SIRI! GET DIRECTIONS TO BEDROOM EXPRESS, EL CAMINO SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO......Siri says ”please tell me what you want” I curse her and switch to Google Maps which finds it and gives directions and boom I’m there. Wait this isn’t right, I know they moved over a year ago. S#%*, Google maps brought me to their old closed location in that shopping center that’s been ready for demolition. Now I remember their new location is over by San Bruno Ave. On the way I was cursing technology further thinking that there is so much garbage online now it takes forever to find what you need and many times the data is old.I must hear someone say “But everything is online” at least twice a week. They’re right. The internet is flooded with garbage now and it’s only going to get worse. Have you tried searching for a restaurant lately to get driving directions or see a menu? Every third party site (Yelp, Living Social, Groupon, Eat24, Menus.com, Grubhub and more) come up trying to get you to order through them so they get 12%? And the businesses real site is nowhere to be found. People say to me Bob you’re just old and grumpy. Really? My Dermitologfist, a thirty something Millinial told me he prefers to shop through local papers. He said “it’s faster if I pickup a local paper then spending an hour online and not finding what I really need., then if I do it takes a week to get it” “You know if they paid to put it in the paper its current.” Exactly Doctor. Ok, so I arrive at my appointment a few minutes late. Started showing Ira the paper and he says “A paper? But everything is online now. ”

The Death of Newspaper Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Some say "Newspapers are dead." "The internet is the only place to advertise now days."

Newspapers are in trouble, but print will never go away.

Believe it or not, print ads still dominate by far any other kind of marketing. People who believe newspapers are dead don't know the facts. Sure, online is growing fast and has taken market share, but only around 6 percent of all retail sales are from online.

https://www.census.gov/retail/mrts/www/data/pdf/ec_current.pdf

Internet is not the primary answer to effective marketing. That's why, after spending millions on scientific studies, Fortune 500 companies like Macy's, Safeway, Lowe's, Sears, Target, et al., spend most of their marketing budgets on print.

Print revenue is half what it used to be just a few years ago. But in 2012 print revenue accounted for $18.931 billion while online was $3.370 billion.

http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/newspapers-stabilizing-but-still-threatened/newspapers-by-the-numbers/

When radio came along, they said it was the end of newspapers. Then when TV became popular, they said the same thing. And now it's the Internet.

Advertising In The San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco is a unique city. It is a walking city with numerous apartment buildings and great mass transportation. 

Advertising strategies that work well in other major markets do not always work here. 

For example; Direct mail may work well in Dallas or LA, but here in San Francisco it does not work well at all. This is why direct mailers like The Penny Saver do not deliver to SF.

An advertising strategy that does work well in San Francisco employs the use of "free papers".

Free papers thrive in SF due to the fact it is a walking city. People walk to the bus, to work, to the restaurant. And on the way they pick up something to read.

Out of all the free papers in SF only one is a "shopper" paper. And that is my paper the SF Advertiser. What's good about a shopper paper is that people are not picking us up to read articles. They are picking us up to....you guessed it, SHOP. 

So even though we might have less circulation then the big daily paper, we can actually bring you more customers for about 1/5 of their cost.

Please contact me if you are interested in advertising in the San Francisco market. I will help you increase your business for not a lot of money.

All The Best,

Bob

bob@sfadvertiser.com

415-861-8370

www.sfadvertiser.com