How To Make Your Print Ads Pay Off

How To Make Your Print Ads Pay Off

I am asked all the time “Where should I advertise my business?” Every businessperson I know is looking for the magic medium, which will generate a windfall of customers. However, the windfall of new customers may not require a new medium at all. It may only require tweaking of their existing marketing mediums.

For many businesses, the local newspaper is a staple of their marketing plan. But, many small businesses don’t realize the full potential of their advertising investment because the ads aren’t pulling the response they need. The local newspaper can be an affordable medium, but it can be very expensive if your ads are not generating enough business. In addition to being affordable, newspapers offer a variety of advantages including:

*Newspapers are published frequently – this provides small businesses tremendous flexibility when running promotions. You can quickly put a campaign in place without waiting for next month’s publication, as you would have to do with a magazine.

*Newspapers allow you to target your audience geographically. This is an ideal situation for local/regional businesses. Sometimes even the smaller/local papers offer special editions that are distributed to areas or neighborhoods of a town allowing additional geographic targeting.

*Newspapers have numerous sections allowing advertisers to target by interest as well. For example, a small ladies fashion boutique would advertise in the Fashion section of their local newspaper.

What Should I Say?
When it comes to what to say in an ad to have your investment yield the best results there are a multitude of techniques to apply. Some are listed here:

*Keep sentences in your ad short – no more than 20 words.
*Keep paragraphs short – no more than 5 lines.
*Use bullets to list your benefits to the target audience.
*Don’t fill every inch of your ad with copy or images. White space makes your ad much easier to read and more inviting when people are scanning a page.

There are many more techniques to use when designing your newspaper ads. For a complete list visit www.7stepmarketingplan.com and check the resources page.

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Nicole Shields is the author of the 7 Step Marketing Plan manual, a complete system, including the Quick Start Kit, a digital file of forms and spreadsheets, which makes it easy for business owners and managers to write, implement and manage a profit-producing marketing plan. To learn more, visit: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=39295