Eleven Tips to Buy Newspaper Advertising
Do you struggle with finding a contact at a newspaper?
Do you stress over ensuring the best rate for your next advertising campaign?
Do you need help with your newspaper ad campaign placement?
While processing thousands of orders, negotiating rates for all kinds of advertisers, and placing newspaper ads across the United States, the MANSI Media team has built up a massive bank of experience. Below, find eleven newspaper advertising buying tips that will help answer your questions and provide you with a leg up on your next campaign.
Tip 1
When dealing with newspaper representatives on a customized quote, always get everything in writing, and keep the paper trail in a safe place. Quite often, you will have to refresh the memory of someone who might dispute the information you’ve gotten from them at an earlier time or that you had gotten from someone else in their absence.
Tip 2
When it comes to print … buy a map. Yup, that large thing made out of paper that you hang on a wall. Whether you are placing print media for a city, county, DMA, region, state, or other, there is no substitute for a map to know your market. Maps are vital to determining radius parameters for geographic areas taking into account things as simple as bridges, natural barriers, competitors, market trends with residential, retail, and infrastructure changes. In a world of smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. this simple approach is often overlooked.
Tip 3
If you are unclear on a quote, ask questions – don’t assume.
Tip 4
You need to have a good search tool at your fingertips. It will make life extremely easy.
Here at MANSI Media, we have an excellent zip code analysis tool that can pull any zip code across the United States of America and provide the papers in that zip code along with their circulation and household penetration. This tool is a huge timesaver and provides access from the east coast to the west and everything in between. If I didn’t have this tool, I don’t know what I would do outside of Google searching everything and we all know how long and painful that is.
Tip 5
Stay Organized!
Tip 6
Ask your newspaper representative about opportunities for bundle packages. Sundays are often the most popular days of the week due to their higher circulation, but many papers will offer significant discounts to add a weekday “pickup” date to your schedule. The same goes for digital impressions – running banner ads on the newspaper website will help expand your audience and provide a more consistent presence and higher frequency of your message. Both of these options offer great value for small incremental costs.
Tip 7
Participate in special sections, particularly the ones with the same vertical/theme (Senior section, Health section, etc.) as your brand. This participation is an excellent way to reach your target audience naturally.
Tip 8
A top trick for Media Buying – It’s always good to make sure the client understands where they want to buy. Often someone may assume buying the largest paper in a state will cover the entire state. Or they are unaware they can target specific towns or zip codes with influential weeklies they never knew existed.
Tip 9
Be as detailed as possible when requesting information from vendors. The more information you get upfront, the more time you’ll save all parties involved, and the more complete your proposals will be for clients.
Tip 10
A good tip for buying newspapers is always to be pleasant to whomever you’re working with -advertising reps, agency contacts, clients, anyone! Your attitude and courteousness will go a long way in building an effective and sustainable relationship and will allow you to have customers and clients that look forward to working with you for any or all of their needs.
Tip 11
Frequency matters. When running a print campaign, scheduling your ad for multiple days increases your exposure to more potential customers, as opposed to running on just one day. Studies show that a minimum of three exposures to a message in a seven day period can produce a positive return on investment.
Contact the MANSI Media team by email, Help@MANSIMedia.com, for assistance for your next newspaper or local online advertising plan. Our team, with over 100 years of combined experience, is ready to simplify your media buying process and provide negotiated rates for any publications throughout the United States.