Newspaper advertisements are as old as advertisement itself.
Although, it’s an age-old method of advertisement, it still receives the same
response and is highly successful. Both small and large businesses still choose
this method to promote their products and services. Ask them and nearly hundred
percent advertisers would select newspapers as their primary advertise medium.
In spite of registered decline in newspaper circulation
numbers and advertisements featured in a newspaper, they are read by millions
of people at their breakfast table. The rate of increase in price to place
advertisements in newspapers is climbing rapidly when compared to radio,
television and billboards. The main aim should be to get the desired attention from
the advertisement and out do the competitor. Various factors should be
considered and measures should be taken to ensure success, while keeping the
cost low.
Many advertisers, who advertise through newspapers, design
their own advertisements without any prior training. This has lead to the rise
of larger number of retailers who think that making an ad by them is the only
way to get it right. This approach saves a lot of money and is good for small
businesses, only if they reach to correct customers. The one time cost of
placing a small advertisement is $150, so the measures should be taken to place
them effectively. It isn’t necessary to have a full-page advertisement posted
in the newspaper. If smartly designed, even half page advertisement can do wonders;
the money saved can be used to advertise concurrently in other mediums like
radio, websites, etc.
Using colorful font can multiply the cost to many times and
is not worth the return. If the budget is low and the matter is confident
enough, black font will be fine. Regular readers read the newspapers daily;
therefore, there is no sense in placing the same ad in the same paper everyday.
The advertisement can be placed in different papers everyday. The frequency can
be three times a week for a particular newspaper. But there is an increase in
the number of readers on weekends, so more money can be invested on placing
advertisement in the weekend edition. Don’t be disappointed if all the
advertisement space is sold on weekend. Insert fliers in between the pages of
the newspaper.
As many advertisers will be posting their ads on weekends in
the local newspaper and the chances of your ad getting lost in the muddle, the
conventions can be twisted a little to beat the competition. Place an offer
coupon in the mid-week editorial and pay the local station to advertise and
talk about the offer on their famous program. Ask them to specifically mention
about the coupon placed in the newspaper. Out of the daily readers, only few of
them go through the entire newspapers. Most of them view the first and last
page. So instead of posting an ad thrice weekly in the middle pages, invest on
placing the ad on the first or last page of the newspaper, once a week.
Majority of the newspapers don’t give competitive protection, that is, an
advertisement of a firm can be placed next to the advertisement of its
competitor. Specify about this condition to the sales person and take the
guarantee from them.
There is a decrease in the number of local newspapers every
year. In United States, only about a thousand newspapers function on a daily
basis. Local people are now relying on weekly papers or newspapers with the
local section. Sometimes only one publisher controls many of the local
newspapers. Newspapers for all the localities are printed at one place with
only the front page being changed. When advertising in such publications, care
should be taken on recognizing the audience that is being reached. All the
effort and money is wasted if the wrong customer is reached and the result can
go in loss. Mixing different medias instead one for advertising is a smart
approach. One can take care of the shortcomings of the other and work in tandem
to make the overall advertising campaign a huge success.
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