When you invest in advertising, do you know what you are actually paying for? No, it isn’t just the ink, paper, manufacturing costs or postage necessary to print and distribute the magazine or catalog carrying your message. Nor is it just just the pixels on a website. While these are real and necessary elements, the true value is for the relationship, and trust, that comes with access to a targeted audience.

Behind every successful media company is an investment that goes beyond content and advertising space. It’s the years and resources spent identifying, attracting and maintaining a specific, targeted audience. For the marketers who want to reach that same targeted universe, that’s where the real value lies.

It’s About Who You’re Reaching

Total circulation, website views, and opt-in email lists are important metrics, but bigger numbers don’t always mean better results. Reaching 5,000 highly targeted and proven buyers (with measurable buying power) can be far more valuable than reaching 50,000 people with casual or tertiary interest in your products or services.

Our qualified circulation databases also take clients deep into decision-making groups that share buying authority; reaching beyond the one job title that might hold the company’s association membership.

Maintaining an Audience Takes Work

Building a quality audience doesn’t happen overnight, and maintaining one requires consistent effort that many companies find mundane. Publishers must invest time in keeping subscriber records accurate, removing outdated contacts and maintaining opt-in subscriptions to ensure the right content reaches the right people.

This process, known as list hygiene, is just as important for digital audiences as it is for print publications. Lessiter Media’s universes include both paid-subscription and qualified (free) universes. 

On the qualified titles, the U.S. postal office requires processes and protocols that indicate the subscriber’s genuine interest, job qualifications and demographics to receive a publication. And our daily and weekly e-newsletters follow similar and strict guidelines, and even conduct an aggressive cleansing of personnel who haven’t engaged with the content in a timely manner. 

These steps are all critical to ensure highly targeted “no-waste” universes for marketers, especially when retirements, acquisitions and newcomers can mean up to a 30% turnover on audiences we serve, and one of many metrics that we monitor closely. Even the most diligent and large and motivated staff cannot keep up with the list disciplines needed to ensure accuracy and timeliness.

Look Beyond the Ad Placement

The next time you’re considering a communications or marketing  opportunity, be sure to weigh the additional factors beyond just price, impressions and, of course, the ease (or difficulty) in building and maintaining your own lists, and over what time period will be required to do so. 

And, of course, studying the brand or circulation statements to ensure that the audience is right for you and your needs to begin with.

Remember: You’re not just buying ink, paper or pixels. You’re investing in a media company’s ability to build and maintain access to the specific audience your business wants and needs to reach.