Chapter 

22
Newspaper Advertising
 

"How To Succeed With Newspaper

Advertising"

  With newspaper advertising [and with all

other types of media], Consistent Advertising =
Sample Ad Familiarity = Trust = Customers. People won’t
buy from you until they trust you. 

 That trust and confidence takes 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
Sample Ad give it time to work.  

A Few Newspaper Advertising Facts

  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.
Sample Ad
 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.

" ...the difference in response is amazing... "

Contact Professional Advertising Now

   
Newspaper Advertising
View All When and Where Your Ad Should Appear
Sample Ads
 Your newspaper advertising strategy will
  depend on your type of business. The key
question is: “When and where [what
Price List 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
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Your words must motivate your
customers to action. Don’t forget
that sales copywriting is a
learned and practiced
professional talent.
 
 
 
strategy as long as their ads are working.
Newspaper Advertising
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. Please read
The Elements of Advertising Design for more.
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. Life.
  Death. Heaven and Hell. 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

 It is not possible to show you every different

way of creating a direct response ad. A lot
depends on your company, the competitive
environment, your target market, your
advertising media, etc.

 As you read through the different advertising

strategies that Professional Advertising offers
on these web pages, you will get a better idea
of what direct response advertising is, and
what it can do. We are trying to give you
enough information so that you can better
recognize effective advertising when [or if] your
designer shows it to you.

Direct Response Example Ad for Newspaper

Advertising
  “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 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.
 
 
 
High quality print advertising
production is critical to your
marketing program.
Professionally produced
materials make you look good,
and they bring you customers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 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.
Your Phone Rings And Clients Walk In The
Door. It’s A Fact.
Contact Professional Advertising Now
Newspaper Advertising
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 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
 
What would a  25%  - 100% increase
in  advertising response mean to
your profits? Our advertising  * Offer a limited number of free consultations
professionals will get it for you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ultimately, it’s your words that
sell. Pictures are great, but sales
copy sells. Your advertisement is
not a decoration for your
company. Don’t let a designer
make it one. And don’t let
anybody make it a literary
masterpiece.
 
 
respond to different offers.
* Use a time limit for response in your
newspaper advertising. Time limits work.
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?
See Testing and Tracking Ads for more
information
* 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. See Generating
Better Qualified Prospects.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Consumer endorsements must
reflect the typical consumers
experience with the product.
Stating, “your results may vary”
doesn’t help if the typical
consumer cannot expect similar
results.
 
 
 
 
* 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.]
* Understand how response devices work.
[Coupons, phone #’s, return cards.] Read the
Direct Mail Advertising chapter for more.
* 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.
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Newspaper Advertising
Copywriting
 Telling business people the truth is not always
easy. Listening can be even harder. Look,
 
 
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To Your Favorites Bookmark Now
 
 
 Professional Advertising
800-573-5633
"Newspaper Ads That Make Your
Phone Ring"  give you one second of attention before
advertising copywriters get paid for a reason.
They study their craft for years. 
 This is the truth – if you are an engineer, or a
lawyer, or a craftsperson, or anyone other than
a professional sales copywriter, then you are
not a sales copywriter. You might think you are
the best writer in the world – and you might be
- but the odds are against it.
 Think about what is at stake here. Words sell.
Everything depends on effectively
communicating to perfect strangers who will
give you exactly one second of their attention.
You get one glance, and then they are gone.
Please read the chapter on Copywriting. And
please, at the very least, have other people
who will tell you the truth read over your work.
And then have a marketing professional review
it. Listen, watch, and note all of the reactions
and feedback you get. Take the criticisms and
make the changes. It’s your newspaper
advertising budget. It’s your money. Don’t
waste it just to see your words in print.
OK. Please read Copywriting. It will help you
to recognize good copy when you read it, and
to write more effective copy yourself. In the
meantime, here are just a few ideas about how
copywriting relates to newspaper advertising.
1. Get to the point. Put the big benefit in the
headline. We are not kidding that people will
moving on.
2. Use the right words – words that sell. Words
like FREE. Yes. Instantly. Truth. Last Chance.
New. Guaranteed. Dramatic. Easy. Secrets.
Magic. Startling. Hurry. Money. Words are
powerful if you find the right ones.
3. Break the rules in your category. For
example, a bank is having a sale. They need to
“move out last years old $100 bills, to make
room for this years new $100 bills”. They have
put money on sale. It’s a wonderful campaign
because they have broken the rules in their
category. It makes for great newspaper
advertising.

4. Use benefits, not features. Saving someone

an hour is a feature. Having an extra hour to
spend with your children is a benefit. What
does the feature do for the customer? That is
the benefit.

5. Excitement. Excitement! EXCITEMENT! If

you are not excited about your product or
service in your newspaper advertising, why
should anybody else be?

6. Your newspaper advertising should get the

customer to physically nod their head and
think, “Yes, that’s me”. “Yes, it’s time to fix this
problem.” If your newspaper advertising can
keep them saying yes, then they are more
likely to call when you tell them to.

7. Tell them to call. Now. Right now. Call

immediately. Remember where that
newspaper will be in 24 hours. [And would you
please bookmark this web page NOW so that
you can find Professional Advertising when
you need us.]

8. Solve problems. Use your newspaper

advertising to remind prospects that they have
the problem, and then offer the solution.

9. The problem – solution format works in

newspaper advertising because you get an
immediate, positive response to your question.
Consider:

Hungry?

Overworked?
Are you tired of paying high bank fees?

Need a vacation?

Are you underpaid?

Newspaper Advertising
Design Tips

 Our goal is not to make you into a designer,

but to empower you to know when your
designer is doing a good job. Here are some
general design ideas for newspaper
advertising. Please read The Elements of
Advertising Design chapter for more
information.

1. Your newspaper advertising has a zero

percent chance of succeeding if your prospect
doesn’t notice it. Attention is everything in
newspaper advertising. You need visual impact
[photos], white space, a distinctive border, font,
angles, or whatever it takes to stand out on the
page. You newspaper advertising must be
distinctive, unusual, and it should contrast with
the other ads on the page. Be different.

2. Paste your ad into the newspaper to get an

idea of whether or not it will stand out.

3. Where your ad is placed absolutely matters.

If your quarter-page ad falls against the fold of
the paper, your readership will be cut by half.
Poor placement just cost you one half of your
customers. Buy a different shape ad that will
guarantee you an outside placement.  

 What is the paper offering? Run of press

[ROP] positioning means that the publisher is
free to place your ad anywhere in the normal
pages of the paper.

 With a preferred position, your ad goes in a

specific section, or near the top of a page that
has reading matter on it. A near reading [NR]
position is placement anywhere on a page
near reading matter.

 You want your ad to be on a page where

people spend time reading. The longer they
stay on the page with your ad the better. You
normally will pay a premium of 10% - 50% for
good position, but it’s probably worth it. Good
positioning could double or triple your
response rate.

 4. Use only serif typeface for copy. It boosts

reading speed, and can increase
comprehension by up to 300% over other
fonts.

5. Editorial style advertising increases

readership by over 50%. With editorial style
advertising, the copy is laid out like a regular
news story. The word "advertisement" always
appears above the copy. If you have a story to
tell, think about using editorial style advertising.

6. Your newspaper advertising should be easy

to look at and easy to read. Poor use of
capitalization, bolding, or italics will decrease
reading comprehension by 50%. Bad sentence
structure will also reduce comprehension.

7. Use #12 font for copy. Use #14 font if your

customers are senior citizens.

8. Don’t use technical jargon. You will lose way

too many readers.

9. Reversed copy gets attention in newspaper

advertising, but it is hard to read. If you use it,
keep the copy very short, and the font very big.

10. Make sure photos face into your ad, not

toward a competitors ad.

11. Make sure your newspaper advertising

looks different from your competitor's. Don’t
advertise for them.

12. Vary sentence and paragraph length. Eight

words per sentence will get the highest
readership.

13. A smaller ad should have a single focus –

one solution for one problem.

14. Busy layouts often work better than clean,

balanced ads because they keep the reader
involved.

15. Use benefit captions under your photos in

all of your newspaper advertising. These will
get read.

16. Word your offer carefully and clearly. Your

offer is a promise about the level of service you
will deliver to your customer's. Your offer will
set your customers expectations, so you want
to be very clear.

17. Coupons get the highest response rate for

all printed marketing materials. Use one if you
can in your newspaper advertising.

Effective Advertising Saves Your Money

Contact Professional Advertising Now
 

The Newspaper Advertising Measuring

System

 Understanding how newspapers measure

space is a little confusing. Newspapers use
picas and points to measure column widths.
One pica is one sixth of an inch. One point is
1/72 of an inch. So six picas = one inch. 72
points = one inch.

 Points and picas convert to font size. A 72

point font means that one font character = one
inch. A 36 point font means one character = ½
inch. A 12 point font, like the one you are
currently reading, = 1/6 of an inch per
character.

 Most newspapers are six columns wide.

Normally, each column is 12 picas, or 2” wide.
The number of columns times the height of the
ad in inches = total column inches. So an ad
that is 3 columns wide x 6 inches high = 18
column inches. The actual size of the ad is 6” x
6”.

 And it is not really as easy as that. Column

widths change. One column normally = 12
picas, or two inches. Two columns = 25 picas,
or 4 ¼”. Three columns are 38.5 pica, or
6.4375” wide, etc.

 Your designer should work out all of the

measurement requirements for your
newspaper advertising. But if you want to do
this yourself, contact your paper for a size
chart. They should provide you with a guide to
figure out the size of your advertisement.

 Also, newspapers will not normally shrink or

expand your ad to fit the space you purchased.
[And you don’t want them to.] So double-check
their requirements before you send in the ad.

Newspaper Advertising
Ask for Help

 As always, we strongly recommend that you

hire a quality graphic designer, and ask a
marketing professional to help plan and review
the work. Also ask the marketing professional
to review your current newspaper advertising
and your newspaper advertising strategy. It’s a
cheap investment for something you are going
to show the whole world every Sunday
morning over coffee.

 And it is absolutely the best investment you

can make for increasing the effectiveness of
your newspaper advertising.