We spend a lot of time talking about digital marketing, partly because it is so visible and partly because it gives us numbers. We can see how many people clicked, how long they stayed and, in some cases, what they did next.
Print is harder to pin down. You cannot always see who noticed an advert, who remembered it or who came back to it a week later, so it is easy to dismiss it as old-fashioned or difficult to justify.
But print can still be a fantastic format, particularly when it reaches the right people in a setting where they are already open to what it has to say.
In a recent episode of The Underground, we spoke with Nick Trachillis, director of The Garden Centre Magazine. For more than 20 years, the business has been producing bespoke magazines for garden centres, combining seasonal gardening content with advertising from both national brands and local businesses.
The garden centre does not pay for the magazine and neither does the customer. It is funded by its advertisers, but for that model to work, the magazine has to be something people want to pick up and take home. It cannot simply be a bundle of adverts with a cover wrapped around it.
Giving people something worth taking home
A printed magazine requires a different kind of attention from a social post or an online advert.
When we are using a phone or laptop, there is nearly always something else competing with what we are looking at. Messages and emails, notification pop-ups and another tab is just a click away. Even when the content is good, our attention can be sketchy.
A magazine is more likely to be read in a quieter moment. As Nick put it:
“With this magazine, I think you’ll sit down with a tea or coffee, you’re invested in reading it.”
Of course, being printed does not automatically mean something will be read. Plenty of leaflets, brochures and catalogues are picked up and quickly forgotten. The Garden Centre Magazine gives customers a reason to keep it because the content is seasonal, useful and connected to the place where they found it.
Someone may take it home for the gardening advice, look through the seasonal ideas or keep it nearby because there is something they want to return to. While they are doing that, the garden centre and the businesses advertising in the magazine remain visible beyond the original visit.
It is a very different experience from an advert that appears briefly in a feed and disappears with the next swipe.
Useful content makes space for the advertising
Nick was clear during the conversation that the magazine cannot become page after page of adverts.
“What we don’t want it ever to be is a directory of advertisers.”
More than half of each magazine is given over to content, including gardening advice, seasonal jobs and information from the individual garden centre. That content is not there simply to fill the gaps between adverts. It is the reason many people pick the magazine up in the first place.
When someone is reading because they want to know what to plant, how to deal with a garden problem or what they should be doing at that time of year, the advertising is placed within something that already feels useful.
For a garden brand, that could mean appearing alongside advice that helps a customer understand a particular task or choose the right product. For a local business, it could mean being seen by homeowners who are already thinking about how they spend their money on their home and garden.
The commercial message is still doing its job, but it has a more natural place within the reader’s experience. Rather than demanding attention on its own, it benefits from the interest created by the content around it.
This is something brands sometimes lose sight of when planning their marketing. We can become so focused on what we want to say that we give less thought to why anyone would choose to spend time with it.
The biggest audience is not always the most useful
One of the more interesting parts of the interview was hearing how The Garden Centre Magazine decides which centres it wants to work with.
Footfall matters, as does the amount of time customers are likely to spend at the centre. Cafés and restaurants are particularly valuable because they encourage people to stay longer and give them a natural opportunity to pick up the magazine.
But size is not the only consideration. Nick explained that a smaller garden centre which has been part of its local community for generations can be more attractive than a much larger site without the same level of recognition or loyalty.
That approach makes sense when you consider what advertisers are really buying. They are not simply buying a number of printed copies; they are buying access to a particular group of people.
Garden centre visitors are often homeowners who are prepared to spend money on their homes, gardens and leisure time. That makes them relevant to garden product brands, but it also makes them attractive to businesses selling flooring, insurance, home improvements and other related services.
The connection is the audience rather than the product category.
Marketing conversations can become dominated by reach, with a larger number assumed to be better. But 10,000 people who have little interest in what you sell may be less useful than a much smaller group with the right needs, circumstances and mindset.
The magazine’s local nature helps make that audience more specific. The reader knows the garden centre, the garden centre knows its customers and many of the advertisers are businesses they may also recognise from the surrounding area.
Not everything valuable happens straight away
The obvious challenge with print is measurement.
Digital marketing can show us who clicked a link or completed a form, while a printed advert may be seen without producing any immediate response. That makes it harder to prove exactly what happened as a result.
Nick shared the example of a carpet company that advertises regularly in the magazine and includes a discount offer. Customers take the magazine into the showroom, giving the company a direct and visible return from the advertising.
That kind of response is useful, but it is only one part of what the advert may be doing.
Other readers might remember the company name, recognise it when they see it somewhere else or feel more confident choosing it when they eventually need new flooring. None of those responses is as easy to count, but they still have plenty of value.
As Nick explained:
“It’s also not about the exact numbers on the return. It’s about putting your face and your brand out there so that people recognise it.”
Print should not be given a free pass simply because some of its effects are difficult to measure. Offers, QR codes, dedicated web pages and asking new customers where they heard about the business can all provide useful evidence.
At the same time, we should be careful not to assume that the only marketing worth doing is the activity that produces an immediate, trackable response.
Familiarity often develops over a period of time. A customer sees a brand, sees it again somewhere else and gradually becomes more comfortable with it. By the time they are ready to buy, it may already feel like a known option.
This is not unique to print. Plenty of online advertising contributes to recognition without receiving the final click that gets credited with the sale.
Print and digital doing different jobs
The Garden Centre Magazine also produces a digital version, which customers can access through a QR code. The digital edition includes links that make it easier to contact an advertiser or move on to further information.
Nick does not see this replacing the printed magazine though, it simply gives customers another way to use it.
That is probably a more helpful way to think about the relationship between print and digital. They do not need to compete for the same role.
Someone might pick up the magazine while having a coffee at the garden centre, take it home and later scan a code to visit an advertiser’s website. Another person may have seen the business online before and then recognise it when they come across the advert in print.
The printed magazine provides a physical presence, a longer reading experience and a useful connection to the garden centre. The digital version provides convenience and an easier route to taking action.
Print and digital can support different parts of the same journey. The magazine may create the initial interest or recognition, while the digital version makes it easier for someone to find out more or take the next step.
Growing through relationships
The interview was ostensibly about the magazine, but it also revealed a lot about how Nick has chosen to run the business.
His father helped him get the company off the ground, several members of the team have been with him for 20 years, and The Garden Centre Magazine has developed long-standing relationships with garden centres, advertisers and Greenfingers Charity.
Nick described his approach by saying:
“For me, it’s all about the relationships rather than the big wins.”
There is a clear commercial logic behind that philosophy. The model only works when everyone involved continues to see value in it.
The garden centre needs to feel that the magazine represents the business well and gives customers something worthwhile. Advertisers need to believe they are reaching the right audience. Readers need content that justifies picking it up and taking it home.
If the balance shifts too far towards any one of those groups, the magazine becomes less useful to the others.
Nick talked about wanting the company to grow naturally, rather than constantly pushing for bigger numbers. After more than two decades in business, a loyal team and advertising clients that return year after year, that focus on relationships appears to have served it well.
Print still has a place in garden retail, but not simply because some customers prefer holding a magazine to looking at a screen.
It works when it fits the audience, adds something to the customer experience and contains enough useful material for the customer to justify taking it home.
Digital offers immediacy, convenience and far more data. Print can offer time, context and a different sort of presence.
The best choice is rarely about following the latest fashion or defending an older channel out of habit. It comes down to understanding the people you want to reach, the situation in which you are reaching them and what will give them a genuine reason to pay attention.