Newspaper Advertising

Newspaper advertising has been around longer than any other formof advertising we see today and is still the first kind ofadvertising that businesses think about doing. These ads can do alot more than just advertise one item or one sale–each one canwork really hard to bring in customers, and then bring them backagain and again. They’re a good way to reach a large number ofpeople, especially those aged 45-plus who tend to read the papermore frequently than younger demographic groups who tend to gettheir news from television, radio or the internet. And you cantarget your ads to the appropriate markets by requesting that yourads run in the section(s) that most closely relate to your targetaudience, be it sports, lifestyle or business.

Like all forms of advertising, your print ad costs will dependon a lot of things: the size of your ad(s), what publication(s) youuse, what sections of the paper(s) you want your ads in, thefrequency with which you run the ads, and whether you use color inyour ads. When it comes to working with the publication, you’llhave a different sales representative from each newspaper who willnot only quote you prices and deadlines but will also help youdesign your ad.

When it comes to price, daily papers are the costliest of yourchoices and are best handled with annual contracts, since thesepublications make committing to one ad at a time costprohibitive–rates plunge dramatically even for the smallestcontract, compared to the one-time rate.

If you find dailies to be too expensive, you can save money byonly running your ads in the local sections the dailies all provideto their subscribers. These are tabloid-like sections that usuallyrun just one day a week and carry news pertaining to smallgeographic areas or neighborhoods. For instance, the Post Standardin Syracuse, New York, carries its local publication, called”Neighbors,” on Thursdays. This local section is inserted into theappropriate daily papers and distributed to the various suburbs ofSyracuse, instead of to the paper’s entire coverage area. If yourbusiness was based in the Syracuse area, you could choose to runyour ad in just “Neighbors East” or “Neighbors West” in order totarget your business’s neighborhood. As you grow, you wouldprobably want to consider purchasing ad space in the local sectionaimed at another area along with, not instead of, your originalarea of coverage.

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: acertain 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. Forexample, because you’ll pay a specific dollar amount “per columninch,” if your ad covers three columns in width and is five incheslong (15 column inches), and you’re paying $30 a column inch, thatad will cost you $450.00 (15 column inches X $30.00). This is truefor print ads in any newspaper, whether it’s daily or weekly.

If you can’t afford to run an ad in your daily paper at all,start with your subscription-based, weekly neighborhoodpublications. Again, you can purchase one area, two areas or allthat are available. You don’t need a contract for thesepapers–they’re pretty reasonable and are read more thoroughly thanthe free, local papers or “shoppers” are because people actuallypay to receive them.

Both the daily and weekly papers will have special sections(holiday, home improvement, landscaping and so on) throughout theyear, and you should ask when something appropriate for yourbusiness is scheduled. Your sales representatives should alsocontact you to let you know what’s in the works. It’s a good ideato place ads in these special sections even if you’re not regularlyin the publications–your competitors will. The good news is, manytimes these special sections carry a less expensive rate, orautomatically runs your ad in all papers, in all sections, andsometimes even offer free color printing, which is a fabulousperk.

Here are a few more tips when it comes to newspaper ads:

• Use the bottom section of your ad as a coupon toprovide an added incentive for readers to visit your location. Besure to put an end date on the coupon. And use the coupon to trackthe response rate of your ads–you’ll know how good your ads are bythe number of people using the coupon.
• Add your URL to every print ad to drive people toyour website where you can tell and sell them more and provide acoupon to print out when they get there.
• Give your sales rep all the information he or sheneeds well ahead of deadline so you can get a proof sheet to checkall the facts before it goes to print.
• When it comes to proofing, check your phonenumber, your URL, any percentages off, brand names, and every otherdetail to be sure what the reader sees is what you intended. Getanother pair of eyes to check for mistakes, too.
• Be sure your print ad corresponds with any otheradvertising you may be doing for maximum impact.