My Thoughts On Newspaper Advertising

One of the most common ways for companies to advertise is in the newspaper. Ad space isn't too pricey (depending on your choice for placement) and you're putting yourself in front of a wide audience. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this advertising outlet is lessening.

Many clients ask me if they should spend their marketing budget on direct mail campaigns or newspaper advertising. That's a tricky one. But, in truth, I usually advise against the newspaper. While I read my local area newspaper daily, and while for smaller towns a newspaper ad can still be very effective, the number of subscribers is rapidly decreasing, thus, readers as well. It's unfortunate, but true.

Because of this decrease in newspaper readers, ad space can be more affordable to buy at times. And that's great, but there's no point in buying ad space that's hidden between the pages of the business section when few people are cracking it open in the first place.

While direct mail can be tricky, rest assured that no one has to pay for it to read it. Furthermore, the advertisement is right out in front of them, instead of being nestled in a page layout amongst several other ads.