Do you react to newspaper ads?

[altwebdesign]

Considering a newspaper advert in my local newspaper business supplement.

Curious to know if you react to newspaper adverts and if you have ever had successes with a newspaper advert.

 

[Deleted member 120503]

Annoying answer alert

1. It depends upon the words you use.

'7 Things Altwebdesign did on holiday
he doesn't want his wife to know'

would probably get your attention.

So yes you can get attention and a reaction.

2. What is the offer to get that reader to take that next step? Better be good. 10% off isn't good it is bland.

3. Overriding all of that is the media. Is it the best one for your target market? So you say the business section so I would think many business people read that section. The numbers may be low as readership is not that high for papers anyway and this would be a sub section but it is a reasonably targeted market.

So I see that you do webdesign. So you can take the risk because in my opinion it can be minimised by the above things.

Just think of your message and test it.

eg If it is for new websites I think this is not so good as most will have websites and those who don't are a hard sell if they have been around for a while. They don't get it so don't bother trying to convert them.

But I think many websites are outdated and look it so I bet the owners of those sites know it too.

So if your message was aimed at them and you had a good call to action to get them to do something like go to a landing page then it could work.

Something like 'Does Your Website Need a Spruce Up?'
folllowed by 3,5,7 reasons why an outdated website is costing you money

blah bah blah in short bullet points then

Get your free report now by going to xyz.com

You must know the costs and what you would need to break even.

I'm sure you know all of this though, just thought I would write it anyway for someone else who might be reading.

Testing testing testing really. That is the mantra.

Dan

 

[Ashley_Price]

In a word "no".

Longer answer "No, because I very rarely read newspapers".

Even longer answer "Even if I did read newspapers I wouldn't hire a website design from a newspaper advert". I do enough networking and have many contacts that if I didn't have a website firm I was perfectly happy with, I would ask others for testimonials."

You also need to be careful about advertising in this way, because you could appear to be contradicting your own business by placing paper adverts, prospective customers might think "If he's as good at designing websites that bring in new business, how come he has to run an advert in a paper? Why doesn't his own website work for him?"

 

[IanDade]

Not sure an advert works for the reasons stated above.

What may be better is trying to get a feature about your company in the business supplement.

This could be a success story, or a big new contract, how you are growing etc. This is more likely to get peoples attention than "just another advert in the paper"

I do read local papers, but to be honest the adverts pass me by.

Most newspapers and magazines are crying out for content and are happy to look promote "good nesws stories" from local firms.

I would suggest contacting the editorial team and seeing if they need any stories.

 

[GMTGuy]

I personally don't but to be honest i'm just glad news papers even still exist. It's really a sad thing to think about as my guess is they'll all be online entirely within 10 years. One thing to note though if you see the same ad in the paper for weeks/months span, it's probably because they're making money at it! so whatever they're selling and however they're selling it(wording, images, color placement etc...) is working!

 

[Moneyman]

local newspapers are great for getting local custom if your market arent the sort of online type...(old).
generally businesses dont read local magazines unless they are big ones EDP, evening standard etc

 

[Simply Business]

It's hard to quantify as we all have our own experiences with adverts - personally it takes a lot from me to take the time to pay attention to adverts, let alone read them.

Being catchy and standing out is the main point I think but it's harder said than done as the only real way to do this is to take out larger ads (which cost more money, naturally).

Google ads are more targeted and are more easily tuned to your audience.

 

[trevord92]

Short answer: "no".

Long answer: get some back issues of the business edition and see whether anyone of your size of business is advertising regularly, if at all.

If it's like our local paper, it's a ghost town for ads apart from classifieds for cars, etc. Oh, and the property supplement once a week.

 

[I Love Spreadsheets]

Ask yourself when was the last time you noticed an advert in that publication - The chances are that should be a really good guide

 

[Advink - Mark]

Although the business supplement is better than an ad in the normal paper i dont think it will be an effective marketing campaign. Why? The stats on the demographics of newspaper readers are not really alligned to your business...

Suggestions:

1. If you do decide to place the add, try and make sure you have a code or a specific page your customers use or visit so you know how many people are read and acted to your ad.

2. If you want local business, try finding supplements or advertising areas more aligned to your target market. Maybe local business support groups, most councils run support systems, try and get in with them.

 

[Ashley_Price]

1. If you do decide to place the add, try and make sure you have a code or a specific page your customers use or visit so you know how many people are read and acted to your ad.

That's a good tip - and one that is often done by the big boys in the industry. If you look at newspaper or magazine adverts, look at if they ask you to quote code such-and-such. In the days before email and still now on the reply forms you are asked to address it to Dept so-and so...

It's strange how often that department had the same initials as the newspaper or magazine it was advertised in.

 

[businessfunding]

Apart from your copy, a lot will depend on repetition, targeting and placement.

A 'random batch sample' of one ad is of no real value so, as has been mentioned, judge yourself against repeat advertisers.

A fairly extreme version of targeting is Parish magazines, which have a very high readership (in proportion do distribution) and good take-up rate on ads- though this is probably rather too localized for you. At the other extreme, you will struggle to get noticed in the Evening Standard.

 

We used newspaper advertising and aligned ourselves against a major business name ... no success. Printed collateral is rapidly declining and if I am honest I don't even notice the advertising in the newspaper, let alone react to it.

I read a newspaper everyday and I couldn't tell you which adverts were in today's. Tough times for the printers, I think.