Let’s Talk Metrics

In the digital world, marketing is all about metrics—open rate, shares, likes, time on site and clicks.

It all feels very scientific and measurable. And it’s not the lingo usually associated with print magazines. But if it were, we think In The Hills’ metrics knock it out of the park by any measure.

Here are some examples, based in part on a professional phone survey we commissioned in fall 2021*

Reach: 40,000+ households each issue.

Open rate: 90% of survey respondents said they read In The Hills.

Shares: more than 70% of respondents share In The Hills content with family and friends.

Likes: 76% said they like In The Hills best among the four local magazines that were compared in the blind portion of the survey.

Time on site: On a website, a few minutes is a long time; on social media, it’s more like a few seconds. But plenty of research has shown that people engage differently with print – giving it their full attention at their own time and pace in a relaxed frame of mind, often over several sittings. Most important, they absorb print information more fully.

Clicks: The point of marketing is, of course, to bring customers to your business. And the digital metrics for that are clicks to your website.

Technology can’t directly quantify a customer’s transition from your print ad to your website, but here’s what the survey was able to tell us:

• 85% of respondents gathered more information about a product or service advertised in In The Hills (Click!)
• 73% considered purchasing a product or service
• 65% went on to purchase one

We think those are pretty impressive numbers. But there’s one important thing that numbers can’t measure – and that is the magic that turns a visitor into a follower. And that is all about content.

The survey revealed that In The Hills outpaced other local magazines by a wide margin not only as the best read magazine, but the one that is most trustworthy, relates most to where they live, and is kept the longest.

We’re proud that 150,000 visitors come to inthehills.ca annually and that we have a robust social media following. But we also know it’s the engaging content of the print magazine that first attracts them to our digital world and keeps them coming back.

We look forward to putting In The Hills’ metrics to work for your business.

In The Hills – Orangeville, Shelburne,
Creemore and areas north of Hwy 9
Roberta Fracassi
[email protected]
Mobile: 519-943-6822