Heidi K., sales representative for the local newspaper, thinks you should invest in an ad campaign for your small retail business. There’s an incentive for opting in now. The price is within your budget, but just barely. Would this be a good use of your limited marketing dollars? Or might they be better spent elsewhere?
The answer to that question depends on your goals and your needs, the age of your target customer and the timing of your ads.
A newspaper is an information-delivery vehicle that only reaches buyers in the market for your product right now. If those buyers are under 45 years old, they’re less likely to be reading the paper, and more likely to be getting their news from TV and the Internet.
Newspaper advertising is a poor fit for building brand awareness, but it can be a cost-effective way for the small retail business to quickly get the word out about a sale or event.
Use it to advertise weekly or monthly sales, however, and you’ll also be training your customers to only buy at your sale price.
Tips for Effective Newspaper Ads for the Small Retail Business
Don’t waste your money on one-time ads. It may seem like one big ad would draw the most attention, but in reality, repetition trumps the size of the ad. If you can’t afford to repeat the ad three or more times, you can’t afford to run the ad.
Although design is typically included in the cost of your ad, don’t leave design or copy decisions up to the newspaper staff. Your goal is to create an ad that will bring a return on your investment. Their goal is to create a decent looking ad quickly. Decent-looking ads don’t necessarily provide any ROI.
Remember that a compelling offer is the centerpiece of any ad. Dan Kennedy, author of the No B.S. series of books for entrepreneurs, puts it this way,
If you want a yard full of deer, do not put a 50-pound block of cheddar cheese outside. Put a big salt block. If you want rats and mice, try the cheese. If you want to catch trout, do not tie an old shoe to your fishing line. Very simple formula: Match Bait to Critter.”
Make sure the right “bait” is part of your offer.
Always include a tracking mechanism. For example: “Mention this ad and receive X” or “For more information, visit offer.yourURL.com” where they will find exactly what you’ve promised in the ad.
Be sure that every ad includes accurate, easy-to-read contact information, and proof this part very carefully. In fact, having a second set of eyes look over your entire proof before publication is ALWAYS a good idea.
Again, I cannot stress enough that YOUR ad must be compelling to YOUR customers. The design staff at your local paper may be talented, creative people, but they get paid by the hour and are rewarded for quick turnaround. Your ROI is dependent upon results.
Need help creating an effective print ad for your small retail business? Just drop me a note on my contact page.
Photo Credit: eob on flickr
You know, I have to tell you, I really enjoy this blog and the insight from everyone who participates. I find it to be refreshing and very informative. I wish there were more blogs like it. Anyway, I felt it was about time I posted, I
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson
I’ve heard some good things about this blog. Remember to balance the pics with the text tho. cheers!
I find it hard to track ROI of newspaper advertising. Building brand awareness is great but how do we know what percentage of sales is coming from the newspaper ads?
Dan, Matt, 101, Lenen – Thanks for your comments!
Lenen,
You track ROI by always including a tracking mechanism in your ad. Regardless of the media, if you always build tracking and measurement into your advertising, you’ll know where your results are coming from.
I’ll also throw out that some newspapers might offer an online listing to complement the printed one. This can be helpful if there is a following to the newspaper/newspaper’s site.
With all of the newest forms of advertising, does anybody really look at newspaper ads anymore? Unless the ads are full pages or really attention-grabbing, there are cheaper ways, right?
MLCP – We usually “read the paper” online, so for people like my husband and me – that’s the only way we’d be exposed to those ads.
Tan – I agree for the most part, but there are times when print newspaper advertising makes sense. For example, I’ve used newspaper advertising as a key part of event promotions and this has been quite effective.
Thank you both for your comments!
Yes Shari, print newspaper advertising is still very effective offline marketing tool, though nowadays people depends on only online ads. Thanks for the great post.
Good tips. I totally agree with you. For retail business, still now newpaper ad is effective offline marketing tool.
I heard about newspaper advertising thats it.I didn’t know much.By reading your post I got some idea about that.I have worked with classified advertising .I have not worked with this.
Can only speak from my experience, but newspaper advertising does not provide the return it once did. Here in the UK, local papers especially are losing editorial budgets because advertising is going online. Print ads clearly still have a place, and I can’t see that going anywhere, but competition is fierce with online