With so many marketing channels available today, businesses often wonder: should they focus on digital media, traditional print, or a mix of both? Sam Helen, Sales Director at LocaliQ for the Southeast, has over 20 years of experience in media and offers valuable insight into this important decision.

Understanding Your Customer First

Sam’s approach to marketing strategy begins with a fundamental question: who is your customer? Rather than diving straight into budgets or objectives, she believes businesses must first understand their actual customer base.

This customer-centric approach often reveals surprising truths. Many business owners confuse their ideal customer with their actual customer base, describing affluent demographics when their real customers may be quite different. Sam advocates for profiling existing customer data before developing any marketing strategy, emphasising that current customers are the bread and butter that have kept businesses going for years.

The SEO Foundation

When discussing digital marketing priorities, Helen is unequivocal about SEO’s importance. LocaliQ recently won SEO Agency of the Year, reflecting their commitment to what she considers the most important marketing strategy. However, she acknowledges that many businesses see SEO as a long-form strategy and prefer quicker results elsewhere.

The key is education. Unless businesses understand what SEO can do for them and what happens if they don’t invest in it, they won’t prioritise it properly.

Sam uses a simple analogy to explain SEO: Google operates like spiders crawling websites, separating good elements from bad ones. The bad elements push websites down in rankings, whilst good elements push them higher. The goal is to get everything into that positive category.

The Investment Reality

For businesses considering digital marketing services, Helen is transparent about investment requirements. “When we’re talking about SEO, search, social, we say a minimum spend of £1,500 to £2,000 a month. No less than that. Because it doesn’t work. And whoever’s telling you it does, it really doesn’t.”

This honesty sometimes means turning potential clients away. “I would much rather say, do you know what, I can’t help you, than take their money,” Sam explains. “If they’re going to force it on me, then yes, their decision, but ultimately we have standards.”

The Renaissance of Print Media

Despite predictions that print would fade away, Sam has seen a renewed interest. “I believe things are coming full circle,” she says. “Our magazine sales are growing year over year.”

She attributes this to screen fatigue and the human need for relaxation. “I’m on a screen all day. My phone is there all day. There are so many different ways people can get hold of me. Because I’m on screens a lot, I don’t really want to shop on a screen all the time.”

Print media serves different purposes for different demographics. “There’s a demographic that love a newspaper. They still love a newspaper because they’ve grown up with it, and they can’t and they don’t want to and they refuse to get into that digital age.”

The Marketing Mix Approach

Rather than advocating for one medium over another, Sam emphasises the importance of a balanced approach. “Really, honestly, don’t just do one thing. It really is about a good marketing mix.”

The decision comes down to understanding customer behaviour through tools like ACORN profiling, which provides detailed insights into how different customer types purchase and consume media.

“Nine times out of ten, we sell more digital than we do print now. Magazines put to one side, because obviously that’s a given—they do both. But in terms of newspapers, we find that they’re using newspapers more for promotion, sales, events if that demographic isn’t their main demographic.”

Social Media Strategy

Sam takes a nuanced view of social media advertising, acknowledging that “as a consumer of social media, you aren’t on there to be displayed with adverts, are you? You’re there to scroll, and if anything, you’re probably trying to avoid advertising.”

However, she highlights innovative approaches like Facebook lead ads that don’t disrupt the user experience. “You’re scrolling, and all of a sudden you get displayed with an advert—a bathroom advert. And you’re in the market, believe it or not. You click ‘find out more information here’, it pre-populates all of your details, submits it off, and you go back to where you started. It doesn’t disrupt your scrolling, your activity.”

The Power of Video Content

Video has become increasingly crucial in the media mix. “You can’t get away from the fact that the general public are consuming video more so than they ever have done,” Helen observes.

She points to the evolution of social media consumption: “People don’t spend time looking at static ads anymore or static images, but they will watch a reel that’s been pulled together.”

The emotional impact of video cannot be understated. “It’s the affected emotion that makes you make decisions,” Helen explains, emphasising how video content allows businesses to showcase passion and personality in ways that static content cannot.

Brand Standards and Quality Control

Through his work with LocaliQ’s Life magazines, Sam has learned the value of upholding brand standards while nurturing strong client relationships. “If your brand relies on loud red sale stickers and zigzag stars, that’s just not who we are,” she explains. “When you advertise with us, you’re aligning with our brand too.”

This requires delicate conversations about brand presentation. “Having those conversations is really tricky. You don’t want to offend anybody, but ultimately, all you’re doing is trying to help them.”

The key is building trust and rapport first. “If you’ve got that relationship with that client and you’ve got that trust, they know you’re not out to offend them. They know you have their best interests at heart.”

Consistency Across Everything

Throughout the conversation, Sam returns to one central theme: consistency. “Everything in life is all about consistency. Be consistent with your parenting, be consistent in business, be consistent with your brand.”

This consistency extends beyond just marketing messages to every touchpoint with customers, from Google My Business listings to website content to advertising materials.

The Local Connection

As part of LocaliQ, the second-biggest local news provider in the UK, Sam emphasises the importance of supporting local businesses. “Without our local people and without our local businesses, we wouldn’t be here because we’d have no news to report on and we’d have no businesses to help grow.”

This philosophy drives initiatives like the “Local Legends” section in Essex Life magazine, which showcases independent local businesses—a feature that began during lockdown to support struggling enterprises and continues today.

It’s Not Either/Or

Rather than declaring a winner in the digital versus print debate, Helen’s expertise suggests the answer lies in understanding your specific audience and creating a tailored mix that serves them where they are, how they prefer to consume information, and when they’re ready to make decisions.

The most successful businesses aren’t those that choose one medium over another, but those that understand their customers deeply enough to meet them across multiple touchpoints with consistent, high-quality messaging that builds trust and drives results.

As Helen concludes: “It all depends on the business and their client and their strategy.”

Ready to discover the perfect marketing mix for YOUR customers?

Get in touch with our team today! – mike@marketingelect.com

You can watch the full interview with Sam here: