I was invited to a free event about newspaper advertising by a well-known speaker. At the time I was doing some advertising in the local newspaper and it was my account manager at the newspaper who sent me the invitation.
The speaker was very sure of his point that a business of any size could use the newspaper as a major advertising tool to attract a large audience because of the huge readership and repeated exposure of your ad.
Of course there were a few account managers from the newspaper there who were ready to sign you up for the ’special offer’ of 12 months advertising at a discounted price in the weekly newspaper.
To my surprise, at no stage did the speaker talk about spending time on the content or message within the ad (except a quick mention that the newspaper people will help you out with that). He went on to state some scientific proof about repeated exposure to the human mind which seemed quite ok, and them some talk about headlines. I agree with the idea of the scientific proof of repeated exposure, but do you really get repeated exposure to the individuals who read the newspaper? How big is your mainstream newspaper? Do people who read it, read it every week? How much of it do they actually see or take in?
There’s something about newspapers that I can’t understand, it’s the business classifieds section, or in some publications there is only one classifieds section that’s a mix of business and private ads. In all of my newspaper-reading experience, if I’m looking to purchase something I will look at the private advertisements, but as soon as I see a bunch of screaming business ads that are mostly not what I’m interested in, I turn away. Even if the subject of what I’m looking for has its own section full of business ads, I would much prefer to get that information on the internet by searching for exactly what I want. That way the perfect results are only a click away.
How can anyone stand to search through that clutter of messy screaming ads with each one trying the latest way of catching your eye? The moment I see a full page of business classifieds it’s a definite quick page-turn. This is the way it’s heading for many old-school advertising mediums, people no longer want to be bombarded with irrelevant ads, did they ever? And certainly not all in one hit like a page full of it.
Newspapers in general are so full of advertising that they have lost their value to the reader. Who wants to read a newspaper that’s grown in size so much that it’s hard to hold, has too many sections that you can’t find the ones you’re interested in, and basically is so generalised that you only want to read 2 to 5 pages of particular or interesting-to-you content but it comes with 120+ pages of content that’s useless to you, and on top of that another 60 pages of advertising inserts that fall out as you struggle to hold it.
The size being one thing, what about the mass of uninteresting gossip content that they have to load it up with to match the amount of advertising space they’ve sold? Maybe newspaper companies should think about how much advertising they sell and cap it instead of trying to be the biggest and sell the most of everything. That could be a key element to their prolonged survival, that and maybe they could split their publication into a few targeted groups so they can provide better content and maintain a better readership. I don’t know a great deal about the newspaper industry so I’m simply quoting my common-sense attitude towards it.
The point I’m trying to make here is that repeated exposure will have a deeper penetration to the mind but with that alone, you don’t have much hope. A massive advertising budget can get the repeated exposure you need with newspapers but there are some key elements that are much more important.
- Target your audience: Without targeting your ideal market you are wasting your time and money with any advertising. I believe there are very few reasons to place advertising in any mainstream newspaper due to what they have become. Find the perfect publications and try online advertising instead.
- Write at least 10 headlines and start knocking them off one by on for ineffectiveness or inability to portray an eye-catching statement. There’s so much to learn about choosing headlines so I’ll leave that for another article.
- The content of your ad: If you haven’t had much ad-writing experience, either get some books and start learning or consider paying an experienced copywriter to write your ad. It really does make the word of difference when you find a good advertising copywriter. They will craft your ad to include emotional and persuasion tactics that will help your potential customers agree with your offer and proceed to taking action. I would highly recommend Scott Bywater. I’m not affiliated with Scott but I have been following his articles and newsletters for some time and it seems he really knows what he’s doing and has many happy customers and proof that his work gets results, so at least check him out.
- Always bargain with the publication to get a better deal, and depending on the size of your ad or commitment to advertising in multiple issues you can ask for editorial or advertorial space – free space depending on the quality or newsworthiness of the story you submit. That’s something you will almost never find in a mainstream newspaper.
One common mistake people make (and I’ve made this one myself) is to use the concept of whitespace to catch the readers eye. Let me tell you from experience and from many other authoritative sources (not newspaper ad designers) that whitespace is a waste of space.
Your headline is what you use to grab attention, if the reader is interested in your headline they will read on. If the reader does read on they will be after some quality answers to remove any objections that they have. This means that if you’ve used the whitespace method, you’ve most likely left out all of that objection-removal text that the reader is looking for. Without removing the main objections from your readers’ thoughts, there’s very little chance they’ll take any further action to contact you or visit your store.
Long copy is the best method when it’s done right, only the most relevant information should be included in your ad and it should be mostly based around removing the readers’ objections about your product or service. Make sure you include a call to action and relevant contact information.
Following these instructions should give you a better ROI than placing an insignificant ad in a sea of many other insignificant ads. So to answer the question ‘Is newspaper advertising worth it?’ – In the majority of cases mainstream newspaper advertising is not worth it without a massive advertising budget.
Good luck with your advertising.
Photo – Mike McCaffrey
Tags: ads, advertising, copywriting, headline, long copy, marketing, newspaper, target audience, target customers, target market, whitespace
