Dealing with Newspaper Advertising

Dealing with Newspaper Advertising
With newspaper advertising [and with all other types of media], Consistent Advertising = Familiarity = Trust = Customers. People won’t buy from you until they trust you.
Trust and confidence take time to build up. To be successful with newspaper advertising, you need persistence, patience, and a budget to keep your newspaper advertising running to build that trust.
Your ad should appear in the same place in the newspaper at least weekly for an indefinite period [forever]. Expect to run your newspaper advertising for two months before you see an increase in sales. It takes some time to build trust. And if you quit, you have to start all over again. Don’t waste your money starting a newspaper advertising program if you can’t give it time to work.
Facts about Newspaper Advertising
Fifty-seven percent of adults in the U.S. read a daily newspaper. Sixty-seven percent read a Sunday paper. They spend almost 45 minutes per day reading at least one paper, and over an hour on Sunday.
Newspapers get the biggest share of advertising revenue in this country. Almost 22% of all ad dollars go to newspapers. Over 85% of that money is spent by local advertisers.
There are over 1,600 daily papers in the United States with a circulation approaching 58 million. The are over 7,000 weekly papers with a circulation of over 50 million.
When and Where Your Ad Should Appear
Your newspaper advertising strategy will depend on your type of business. The key question is: “When and where [what newspaper sections on what days] do your customers look for your type of business?"
Here are some general placement guidelines:
1. A smaller advertisement run repeatedly will do better than a larger ad run less often. Familiarity = trust.
2. Shoppers read the Friday, Saturday and Sunday papers to plan their weekend shopping. Saturday is the most important of the three, but Sunday is the most widely read. If you are a retail store, you probably want your newspaper advertising to run on these days.
3. The public knows to read the paper on certain days of the week to get certain information. If your competitors are all running their newspaper advertising on Wednesday in the same section, there is a reason. Shoppers know to look there for information about your type of business.
If you change your ad and your customers don’t recognize it, you will have wasted all of the trust you have built up over time. Many companies never change their basic newspaper advertising design. This is a good strategy as long as the ads are working.
Attention
You will see us repeat this idea over and over. Your ad has a zero percent chance of succeeding if your prospect doesn’t read it.
Attention is everything in newspaper advertising. Don’t be shy. You want the biggest ad that makes economic sense, and the most stunning presentation you can design. Your ad must stand out from [contrast with] all of the others on the page. Conservative ads won’t even get noticed. Think about it.
Direct Response Newspaper Advertising
Once you get their attention, your newspaper advertising needs to motivate your customers to respond now. A direct response ad is written to get attention, interest, desire, and action immediately. Think of it this way: Where will that newspaper be in 24 hours? [In the recycle bin.]
Now, think about that huge mountain of inertia you must overcome with your customers to get action. You want them to take a financial risk, clip your ad, get in their car, drive to your store, deal with your staff, buy your products, carry them home, assemble and install, etc. etc. etc. All they want to do is sit in their chair and peacefully read their newspaper. How are you going to get them to respond?
You use direct response newspaper advertising, and you create professional advertisements using professional marketing techniques.
You need to make your customers squirm, or wince, or laugh, or cry. You need them excited, exhilarated, and ready. Make them feel danger. Fear. Heat. Sex. Hunger. Desire. Stoke them up, and then tell them how to get what they want. Fulfill that desire. Quench that thirst. Eliminate that pain. Easy. Fast. Free.
So, can your diaper delivery service do this?
You'd better, or no one will call. Actually, this may be a bad example, because there is a certain built-in motivation to get someone else to clean your dirty diapers. But no matter what your service or product, you need to build real motivation in your customers if you want them to respond to your newspaper advertising.
More Direct Response Newspaper Advertising
Let's see if we can help you to better recognize effective direct response advertising when [or if] your designer shows it to you.
Direct Response Advertising Example
“Hungry? Try Our .99 Double Cheeseburger”
This ad achieves one-on-one communication, and it motivates the reader to recognize a problem [hunger] by asking a stimulating question.
“Hungry?” [“Yes”, the reader replies, “That’s me.”] The ad then offers an immediate, highly desirable solution. “Try Our .99 Double Cheeseburger” [problem, solution, value, desire, satisfaction.]
The ad gets visual attention simply by using special fonts. It gets attention, identifies a problem [stimulates interest], creates desire, and demands immediate action.
Notice that this newspaper advertising does not ask the reader to try the product - it tells the reader to try it. And if the reader is actually hungry, this ad can stimulate a physical reaction in their stomach and in their mouth. Using the right colors in the ad will increase this physical reaction. A full color photo of the product could make your stomach grumble. Get the idea?
This deceptively simple newspaper advertising works. It is written to get a response, and it does.
A Direct Response Advertisement:
1. Gets attention through design, ad size, placement, and timing.
2. Stimulates interest by touching on human emotions, desires, and needs.
3. Creates desire by offering solutions [benefits] to emotions, problems, or needs.
4. Gets action by making the solution highly desirable yet affordable and easy.
This is professional newspaper advertising. Use it.
A Warning For Professionals: If you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer, or any professional, and you are thinking: “I want to be very professional in my newspaper advertising. I just want to put my name out there. I don’t want to sell”, then your newspaper advertising costs will be exponentially high [$10 x $10 x $10…]. Your newspaper advertising must be classy and professional, but it also must get attention, spark interest, create desire, and ask for action. And ultimately, it must show a return on your investment. That is what professional direct response ads are designed to do.
Increase Your Response Rate
There is only one way to increase the effectiveness of your newspaper advertising. You have to measure the response rate, and test variations of the ad to improve on that response rate.
You only get what you measure. In one test, some smart marketing pros discovered that just by changing the headline in the ad they got a five-hundred-percent increase in response. 500%! How did they do it? They changed the headline, and measured the results.
So test different headlines, offers, copy, themes, ad sizes, photos, illustrations, and when and where your newspaper advertising runs. Measure the results. It’s worth the work. Here some additional ideas on increasing response:
• Your headline is 70% responsible for the success of your ad. You want it to promise the biggest benefit, or to ask a provocative question. “Loose 10 pounds in 2 weeks” is a benefit promise headline. Your Headline Must Be Great.
• Write a few different strong headlines, and try them out. An improved newspaper advertising headline could triple the response rate to your ad, or more. Same ad - different headline - three times the response. How do you do it? You test different headlines, and measure the response.
• You want your newspaper advertising to awaken strong emotions in your customers. Emotions are triggered by clear and powerful benefits. Give benefits, not features. Touch on human desires and needs, and offer the solution to the problem.
• People will justify their emotional decisions later. Newspaper advertising is not the place for a logical argument or justification. The job of the ad is to get a response.
• Twice as many readers will look at your graphic than will read your headline. By using a graphic or a photo, you are getting the attention of twice as many people with your newspaper advertising.
• 60% of consumers believe ads that offer a money-back guarantee. 57% believe ads that carry an official third party endorsement. 46% of consumers believe claims based on survey results. Use these tools in your newspaper advertising if you can.
• Offer different deals every few weeks. One offer will out-pull the others. This will also help you to get different kinds of customers who respond to different offers.
• Use a time limit for response in your newspaper advertising. Time limits work.
• Offer a limited number of free consultations or special deals per month. “Only the first 50 people….” This gets people to respond now.
• About 1/3 of readers will stop reading your newspaper advertising after the first 50 words. An additional 25% will stop reading after 200 words. Put the benefits up front.
• People believe testimonials. Use them if you can in your newspaper advertising.
• Be careful when measuring the response to your newspaper advertising. Many unpredictable things can go wrong or right that have nothing to do with your ad. Current events, the weather, and competitor actions can help or hurt you in the short run. You may get great placement and a great response, or the exact opposite. Just average it all out. Ask your customers where they saw your ad, and be persistent. Good luck or bad, it’s time and patience that will pay off with your professional newspaper advertising.
• Set goals and measure your progress. Are inquiries becoming clients? What is your return on investment for your newspaper advertising?
• Are you getting repeat business? Find out why customers are, or are not, coming back.
• Are you attracting customers you don’t want? Not every client is profitable or desirable. You may need to modify the offer you are making in your newspaper advertising.
• A half-page advertisement will pull 70% of the business a full-page ad will. A quarter-page ad will pull 50% of a full page. Is the cost difference worth it?
• Tell your customers to respond now. Tell them what to do and how to do it. Make it as simple as possible for them to respond to your newspaper advertising. [Offer credit, discounts, delivery, 800#, web information, directions, map, etc.]
• Response devices work. [Coupons, phone #’s, return cards, directions.] Make sure it is easy for your customers to respond.
• Use the problem – solution format in your newspaper advertising. And always ask questions that get a “Yes, that’s me” reply.
• Buy a bigger ad. Effective newspaper advertising requires space. If you need to include a lot of information in your ad, don’t try to cram it all into a little box.
• Your newspaper advertising also needs to work with the reader's physical eye movements. The point of attraction for the eye, and the subsequent movement or natural reading progression, needs to lead the reader toward the response devise.