Use a short typeable address that will never move, repeat the advertisement's exact offer on the page, and treat that address as permanent because the printed copy is.

Three differences from a digital advertisement

The page has to be reached by typing, which means the address is part of the creative rather than an invisible link.

The advertisement cannot be corrected once printed, so anything wrong stays wrong for the life of the publication.

And printed material has a long tail: a magazine sits in a waiting room for a year, a leaflet goes in a drawer, a directory stays on a shelf.

Each of those changes what the page has to be, and together they make permanence the central requirement rather than conversion optimisation.

The address has to survive being typed

A short path on your own domain, such as your address followed by a single plain word, is usually the right answer, since it needs no new registration and inherits your existing standing.

Make it permanent

The requirement that follows from print outliving the campaign.

Somebody typing that address in three years should reach something sensible, because the printed copy will still exist and the campaign will not.

Which means never deleting the page when the promotion ends. Change its content to something current and keep the address working.

An expired offer page that says the offer has ended, with a link to what you do now, is fine. A missing page is a wasted arrival.

Add these addresses to whatever list you keep of things not to delete, since they are the ones most likely to be tidied away by somebody reorganising a site.

That single rule prevents most of the loss from print advertising, and it costs nothing.

Repeat the offer exactly

Because somebody arriving has just read a specific thing and is checking they are in the right place.

Use the same words, the same figure, and the same deadline as the printed advertisement, prominently, at the top.

Not a paraphrase, and not a general version of the offer, since a person who read fifty dollars off and finds a page about spring savings has to work out whether these are the same thing.

Include the same image where you can, since visual recognition confirms it faster than reading does.

That is the whole of message continuity in this context, and it is more important with print than with a click because the gap between seeing and arriving is longer.

A worked example

A business ran an advertisement in a local publication pointing at a page created for the campaign.

The offer ran for six weeks, after which the site was tidied and the page removed.

Eleven months later they took two calls from people who had found the magazine in a waiting room, typed the address, and reached a page not found error.

Both mentioned it, which meant others had not.

They recreated the address as a page describing their current services and added a note about the expired offer.

Their conclusion was that print keeps working long after you stop paying for it, and only if the address does.

Measuring it

Harder than with a click, and not impossible.

A distinct address per publication is the cleanest method, since arrivals at that address are attributable to that advertisement.

Use a different word for each: one for the magazine, one for the leaflet, one for the directory.

Then arrivals at each are countable in your analytics without any tracking parameters, which nobody would type anyway.

Add the question to your enquiry handling as well, since most people will not use the address and will search for you instead.

Expect the distinct address to undercount considerably, and treat it as a floor rather than a total.

Design the advertisement for one action

The constraint print imposes more sharply than screens do.

A printed advertisement is read in a moment and cannot be scrolled, so it supports one message and one instruction.

Choose either the address or the phone number as the primary route, in a size that can be read across a room, and make the other secondary or absent.

Including both at equal weight halves the attention each receives and makes the layout busier.

For anything urgent, the phone number wins. For anything considered, the address does, since people look later rather than acting immediately.

Check the page before the deadline

Since print has a lead time and the page frequently is not ready.

Publications need artwork weeks before publication, and the page tends to be built afterwards, which produces a period where the advertisement exists and the address does not resolve.

Build the page first, test the address by typing it on a phone, and only then submit the artwork.

Have somebody else type it from the printed proof, which catches the character that looks fine on screen and is misread on paper.

Check it again on publication day, since that is when the traffic starts and a broken address then is unrecoverable.

The counter-case

A dedicated page is not always warranted.

For a small advertisement with a general message, pointing at your home page is entirely reasonable, and a page built for one small advertisement can be more work than the advertisement is worth.

Most people will also search for your business name rather than typing an address, which means the name being findable matters more than the address being clever.

And for genuinely local print, the phone number frequently outperforms any web address regardless of how it is built.

Use a short permanent address, repeat the offer exactly, never delete the page, and count arrivals as a floor.

What to do

  1. Choose a short address with no hyphens.
  2. Build the page before submitting artwork.
  3. Repeat the offer in the same words.
  4. Use a distinct address per publication.
  5. Pick one primary route, address or phone.
  6. Have somebody type it from the proof.
  7. Never delete the page.

Step seven is the one that pays off years later, since printed material keeps arriving long after the campaign ended and only reaches you if the address still resolves.

The mechanics of the page itself are covered in a landing page built for one advertisement.

Frequently asked questions

How is print different from a digital advertisement?

The page is reached by typing, the advertisement cannot be corrected once printed, and printed material resurfaces for years after the campaign ends.

What makes a good printed address?

Short enough to remember at a glance, no hyphens, no mixed case, ordinary spelling, and guessable if slightly misremembered. A short path on your own domain usually works.

What happens when the campaign ends?

Keep the address working and change the content. A page saying the offer has ended with a link to current services is fine; a missing page wastes every later arrival.

How closely should the page match?

Exactly. The same words, figure, and deadline, prominently at the top, plus the same image where possible, since somebody is checking they are in the right place.

How do I measure print?

Use a distinct address per publication, so arrivals are attributable without tracking parameters nobody would type. Expect it to undercount and treat it as a floor.

Should I include both a number and an address?

Choose one as primary. Including both at equal weight halves the attention each receives. Phone for urgent work, address for considered purchases.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Landing page for a print campaign?

Add its address to whatever you never delete. Printed copies keep arriving for years after you stop paying.

Start a Conversation