Advertising in magazines and newspapers can play a major part in growing your business. But many people go at it the wrong way. In fact, many people conclude that advertising in these type of publications don’t work for their business. However, it doesn’t need to be this way. Most people are so busy they simply don’t have time to understand how magazines and newspapers work.

If you can take a little time to really understand the concept of how to make it work, you’ll be on your way to move ahead of your competitors, because most people truly don’t.

1. Magazine and newspaper advertising is vastly different from all other advertising types, and must be treated as such. This type of advertising can (and should) be a superb lead generator, but remember you are competing head to head with dozens of your competitors. There’s no other marketing or advertising tool where competition is so fierce. Even though advertising in these publications presents you with the challenge of competing against all your competitors, you can guarantee 99% of them have ads that are ineffective. That’s your edge. As long as you follow each of this you’ll steal business from right under their noses.

2. Recognize when people find you, because they’re already looking to buy. People using magazines and newspapers (whether free of paid) are immediately excellent prospects for you. Whenever someone looks at your ad they’re interested at your product or service. This cannot be said in all other forms of advertising or marketing. When you advertise in the local newspaper your ad needs to grab the attention of the reader and convince them they need you.

With magazine advertising your ad still needs to grab the attention of the reader, however, your reader is already interested in your product or service. Therefore, your goal is not to convince them they need you, but to ensure they choose you over and above your competitors. Hopefully, you’ve learned how important it is to use a headline in all your advertising. That doesn’t mean your headline is the name of your business. This is probably the biggest mistake 99% of businesses make with their ads.

3. You must prepare in advance. Many people leave the creation of their advertisement until the last moment. They say, “Just repeat last years ad,” or “Will you create something for me?” – are things that are said all too often. Unfortunately, if you want your advertising to be successful, you have to spend time on it. This has to be just like all your other marketing and advertising tools. If you do you’ll benefit greatly – I guarantee it. And please don’t ever ask the magazine or newspaper reps to design your advertisement. They design about 60% of the ads, and they all look the same. This generally means unsuccessful and they don’t truly understand what makes a successful ad.

4. Your ad must be big enough to get your offer and message across. The owners, directors or partners of many businesses are simply happy to put short or single line entries, semi-display, or in-column ads in the magazines or newspapers, and then conclude it don’t work.

Here’s a reality check: Single line entries, semi-display ads or in-column ads don’t work. They hardly ever cover their cost. Why? Because you can’t say enough about your product services to convince people they should be buying from you or at least talking to you. Don’t fall into the same trap. Your ad needs to be big enough for you to tell the prospect why they should be calling you – and not someone else.

5. Understand the multiple ad rule. Magazines and newspapers group together different businesses in the same product or service page, and people know they are going to have a good selection of companies to choose from. It therefore stands to reason in 95% of cases every person looking for your business will follow this rule. They’ll choose one, two or three companies to call or visit. Therefore your advertisement MUST ensure your company is chosen in this case.

6. You must achieve rule five or else. If you don’t achieve rule Five, your advertisement will sit on the page and blend in with the rest. There will be no hope of gaining interest – it’s as simple as that. The only reason why magazine and newspaper advertising flops is because the ads fail to stimulate the prospect into calling or stopping by – over and above the rest of the competition. It stands to reason that if your ad doesn’t entice people to call – it will fail. I know this is obvious, but when you take a look at most of the ads in these publications it seems most people don’t understand this basic assumption.

7. You must create your ad with one purpose in mind – to achieve your primary objective. This last rule ties all the previous rules together. It’s the “mechanics” of your advertising. Your ad should be created to achieve your primary objective. For many, this is to receive a phone call from the reader, or a website visitor. For others it could be for people to walk into their premises or store. The key is this…your ad should be created to fulfill this one primary objective – and this one objective only.

Many people try to achieve several things with their advertising. You’ll never achieve great success if you take this approach. One objective means one outcome. The outcome YOU want.

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