Newspaper Ads

Newspaper advertising has been around longer than any other form of advertising we see today and is still the first kind of advertising that businesses think about doing. These ads can do a lot more than just advertise one item or one sale — each one can work really hard to bring in customers, and then bring them back again and again. They're a good way to reach a large number of people, especially those aged 45-plus who tend to read the paper more frequently than younger demographic groups who tend to get their news from television, radio or the internet. And you can target your ads to the appropriate markets by requesting that your ads run in the section(s) that most closely relate to your target audience, be it sports, lifestyle or business.

Like all forms of advertising, your print ad costs will depend on a lot of things: the size of your ad(s), what publication(s) you use, what sections of the paper(s) you want your ads in, the frequency with which you run the ads, and whether you use color in your ads. When it comes to working with the publication, you'll have a different sales representative from each newspaper who will not only quote you prices and deadlines but will also help you design your ad.

When it comes to price, daily papers are the costliest of your choices. If you find dailies to be too expensive, you can save money by only running your ads in the local sections the dailies all provide to their subscribers. These are tabloid-like sections that usually run just one day a week and carry news pertaining to small geographic areas or neighborhoods.

When you look at a paper, you'll see it's divided into columns. Your newspaper ads are sized according to a very set formula: a certain number of columns wide and a certain number of inches long. Multiplying the two numbers together will give you the number of «column inches» of your ad, which determines the ad's cost. For example, because you'll pay a specific dollar amount "per column inch", if your ad covers three columns in width and is five inches long (15 column inches), and you're paying $30 a column inch, that ad will cost you $450.00 (15 column inches X $30.00). This is true for print ads in any newspaper, whether it's daily or weekly.

Both the daily and weekly papers will have special sections (holiday, home improvement, landscaping and so on) throughout the year, and you should ask when something appropriate for your business is scheduled. Your sales representatives should also contact you to let you know what's in the works. It's a good idea to place ads in these special sections even if you're not regularly in the publications — your competitors will. The good news is, many times these special sections carry a less expensive rate, or automatically runs your ad in all papers, in all sections, and sometimes even offer free color printing.

Here are afew more tips when it comes to newspaper ads:

— use the bottom section of your ad as a coupon to provide an added incentive for readers to visit your location. Be sure to put an end date on the coupon. And use the coupon to track the response rate of your ads — you'll know how good your ads are by the number of people using the coupon.

— add your URL to every print ad to drive people to your website where you can tell and sell them more and provide a coupon to print out when they get there.

— give your sales representatives all the information he or she needs well ahead of deadline so you can get a proof sheet to check all the facts before it goes to print.

— when it comes to proofing, check your phone number, your URL, any percentages off, brand names, and every other detail to be sure what the reader sees is what you intended. Get another pair of eyes to check for mistakes, too.

By Kathy J. Kobliski

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30