Page 140 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

MAKE EVERYDAY ADVERTISING IDEAS WORK

54 Making a newspaper advertisement that works

Newspaper advertisements can be very effective. Unfortu-
nately they can also be expensive, depending on the
publication. Like any marketing idea, I suggest you should
tailor your newspaper advertising around your budget. The
bigger the advertisement, the bigger the results tend to be.

Newspaper advertising is good to promote items that
call for immediate action. By this I mean the customer
reads the advertisement and they can do something about
it today. It might be a sale on at the local shopping centre,
a new movie, a new car, a house or a restaurant. Newspa-
pers bring instant results and because of this you need
to tailor your advertisement to make the most of this
characteristic.

The following list identifies ways to increase your suc-
cess in newspaper advertisements.

1. always have a strong heading to catch the readers’
attention;

2. design unusually sized advertisements;
3. keep words to a minimum;
4. try to leave space in the advertisement;
5. use a border;
6. give the person a reason to call you immediately;
7. only use pictures if they have a lot of contrast—news-

paper print is the lowest quality you can get so be
careful when using pictures; and
8. make sure you include all the facts—who, what, when,
where.

Positioning of your advertisement is also important.
Some people swear that your advertisement should be on
a right-hand page and preferably an early right-hand page
(up the front of the newspaper), which is why you pay
more for these spaces. I don’t necessarily agree with this;
however, it is a matter of trial and error. The more often

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